I finally learned why my banana bread kept caving in the middle after 11 tries

...and honestly that whole oven calibration thing took me down a rabbit hole once with my old electric range. I spent an entire weekend convinced my sourdough starter was the problem, fed it different flours, changed hydration levels, even talked to it like a houseplant. Turns out the thermostat on the oven was just stuck and it was running 40 degrees low the whole time. My neighbor's husband is a repair guy and he came over, poked at it for five minutes, and said the sensor needed cleaning. Fixed it with a damp rag and a screwdriver, no new parts or anything. Now I trust the $15 oven thermometer I keep on the rack way more than the dial, and I check it every few months just to be safe. It's funny how we blame ourselves or the recipe first when sometimes the tools are just lying to you.