Jib Jab w/KAF

My email to KAF:

I am having a problem w/cinnamon bread collapsing. It rises while baking and comes out great and as it cools or perhaps even before cooling...the inside of the bread collapses away from the top crust. I ALWAYS have a hollow 2 inches from where my actual bread swirl starts and my top crust when I cut. I had called your hotline yesterday and the woman told me to put some slashes in my bread (fairly deep ones) to let the steam escape. I did this w/the last 2 loaves in my bunch and it baked up great and almost thought it solved the problem but again.....right after coming out of the oven w/in minutes the bottom layers had sunk considerably away from my top crust. What am I doing wrong??? This has happened w/every recipe I have used....I have used frozen bread dough, fresh bread dough, babka dough and I am using the King Arthur Baker's Cinnamon filling. I can send pictures if you need them but I can't seem to get an answer anywhere to what is happening. I am baking in a loaf pan, le creuset variety. I have calibrated my oven and use a thermometer EVERYTIME I bake. I am not using a convection setting, just a normal bake setting. Help me please. Thanks for any input you can give me. I have also made several other batches of bread....pita, rye, pumpernickel, ciabatta and I am not having any problems cooking those. It is just the cinnamon bread that you roll like a jelly roll.

KAF response:I hope this information will be helpful. Please email again if we can be of further assistance.

My reply: What information?? You didn't send me anything.

Their reply: Hello,I'm sorry you are having problems getting Joan's message. I think we talked on the phone. What I like to do is roll the loaf up loosely into a log after I have spread it with the filling. Then I cut the log in half the long way except for about 2" at the top. It ends up lookinglike a pair of trousers. I turn the cut sides (the legs) up and twistthem loosely together. Then place the loaf in the pan and let it rise as usual, and bake as usual. This seems to stop or at least decrease thetendency to have that big gap between the top and the rest of theloaf.If you don't like the swirl effect and prefer the spiral, just try to roll the dough up very loosely. Sometimes that works better than trying to roll it really tight, to prevent the gap. I hope these tips help.
Mary Customer Care King Arthur Flour

So, basically I took my babka dough....rolled it like a jelly roll, folded it under and cut it like a pair of assless chaps in a gay pride parade.....braided it like a naked pretzel twister tournament and laid it back in my loaf pan and it is rising as we speak. We'll see what happens................................................... Who says "trousers"??? The only time I ever hear that word is when my husband says "Trouser Trout" and laughs like a 13 year old puberty stricken child.

Babka=It is a spongy yeast cake that is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday. Darra Goldstein, professor of Russian at Williams College says "babka comes from baba, a very tall, delicate yet rich yeast-risen cake eaten in Western Russia and Eastern Poland."[1] Traditional babka has some type of fruit filling, especially raisins, and is glazed with a fruit-flavored icing, sometimes with rum added. Modern babka may be chocolate or have a cheese filling.