Hi Jeff, often a gap like you describe can be a sign that the dough was a bit over-proofed. When your shaped loaf is allowed to rise too long, or at too warm of a rising temperature, the structure begins to break down and this can cause the fermentation bubbles to rise to the surface of the loaf, where they can get trapped beneath the crust during baking. Check out this blog post for some tips on how to avoid this from happening. 

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