Great Tips for No Cracks in Cheesecakes

Nancy,

I used to think I had to accept cracks in my cheesecakes. But then I read Rombauer's _Joy of Cooking_ on cheesecakes and applied many of the following tips, and now I have no more cracks:

(1) Grease the walls of the springform pan. The oil helps the sides of the cake pull free of the pan during cooling.

(2) As an alternative to greasing the pan's walls (Tip #1), line the walls with a shortbread crust. This is the way the classic Lindy's cheesecake, a/k/a the New York cheesecake, is made. The crust walls insulate the batter at the perimeter of the pan from excessive heat.

(3) Do not over-beat the batter. Over-beating causes incorporation of too much air so that the cake puffs like a souffle during baking and sinks dramatically and cracks upon cooling. Only a minute or two of mixing, preferably with the paddle of the mixer and not the whisks, is recommended.

(4) To minimize the amount of beating needed, the cream cheese should be softened to room temperature and creamed smooth together with the granulated sugar before the addition of any liquid ingredients such as eggs. Once eggs are added, any lumps still remaining in the cream cheese are hard to beat out.

(5) Scrape the bowl and paddle frequently during beating. This avoids lumps and the need to beat too long by ensuring that the firmer cream-cheese-and-sugar mixture is mixed with the liquid ingredients.

(6) Bake at a low temperature. The "New York method" is to place the pan in a 500 degree oven and immediately lower the temperature to 200 degrees. Bake at 200 degrees for an hour or so, depending on the size of the cake.

(7) Remove the cake from the oven while the center is still jiggly and cool covered by an overturned bowl to keep the air inside moist and warm.

(8) As an alternative to cooling under an inverted bowl (Tip #7), turn off the oven and hold the oven door open just a crack with a wooden spoon handle.

(9) Bake in a water bath. Place water in a larger pan, so that the water reaches halfway up the walls of the springform pan. (I tried this once, with Rose Levy Beranbaum's famous Cordon Rose cheesecake recipe in _The Cake Bible_, but the cake turned out so custard-like and wet that I couldn't stomach it and had to throw the cake away. There are several schools of cheesecake-fanciers, and I definitely prefer the dry and dense texture to the creamy and custardy).

This is what I do with my New-York-style cheesecake that turns out beautiful every time:
Start out with all ingredients at room temp. Butter the walls and bottom of the 9" springform pan. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the pan, extending the crust 1/3 up the walls of the pan. Chill the crust in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Microwave the cream cheese to slightly warmer than room temp. Cream the sugar into the cream cheese, mixing on low speed; the result is silky smooth. Add flour to the cream-cheese mixture, still mixing on low speed. Actually, I mix on low speed throughout the recipe, and scrape the edges of the bowl and the beaters frequently. Whisk the eggs lightly in a separate bowl, to a uniform yellow, while avoiding bubbles as much as possible. Still at low speed, beat the eggs and vanilla into the cream-cheese mixture. The batter at this point is marvelously satiny-smooth. Pour the batter in the pan. Wrap soaking-wet Magi-Cake strips around walls of pan. Bake at 475 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower thermostat to 200 degrees and bake for another hour and 15 minutes. Do not open oven during baking. Turn off oven and leave cake in unopened oven for one hour. Remove from oven and run plastic knife around cake to separate cake from sides of pan. Cool in pan to room temperature. Remove sides of pan. Cover and chill for at least 12 hours before slicing.

I hope these tips will help you. Remember, you don't have to live with cracked cheesecake! Happy baking!

Sandy