My fruit breads keep falling

I am a great cook but not much of a baker. The last three fruit breads I baked fell. I have never had this problem before. How long is the shelf life of baking powder? I am thinking it may be the problem. Don't really know though. Any thoughts?

Thank You,
MissGinger

[W.DeBord]

You have a loaded question....yes it could be your powder (but it's pretty rare), you should buy it fresh at least every year and keep it tightly sealed.

You might have also had the wrong oven temp. (are you sure your oven doesn't need to be re-calibrated?).

You could have not had enough powder or soda or too much of either would have been a problem too.

You could have bumped them around in the oven at the wrong time when they were setting and that would have deflated them.

The wrong pan can affect things too. Some of those super non-stick pans don't give the batter anything to hang onto as they rise. So the batter keeps folding in to itself because it slides off the sides of the pan. That prevents a domed top.

So unforunately there are several things that could have gone wrong.......did any of the things I mentioned ring a bell for you?

[momoreg]

Hmmm.. I answered this question about 15 minutes ago, and now it's gone! Anyway, W. mentioned the same things that I did.

It may also be too much liquid in your mix.

[kokopuffs]

I agree with Momoreg regarding too much liquid. However, try switching baking powder. I use Rumford which gives a far better rise than Calumet. Rumford works much better for me.

Thanks for brain storming for me. I have recently started using the non-stick bread pans. And my baking powder is pretty old. Am going to change both. Don't know when I will get to it, but I will let you know when I do.