Cheesecake

[Shirley Ekstein]

After years of thinking I hated cooked cheesecakes, tried one couple of months ago and changed my mind - loved it. First one I cooked was perfect, but too sweet so since then have added the juice of a lemon which cuts the sweetness perfectly but the surface is now cracking - have tried using a cooler oven - no luck - still cracking. Am using recipe that involves 4ozs sour cream, 1lb cream cheese - (cut that to 8ozs and used 8ozs ricotta) - 6ozs sugar, 3 eggs, rind of lemon and vanilla - d'you think it's the adition of lemon juice that's causing the cracking? Any ideas or advice would be SO welcome.

[browneye]

Hi, Shirley,
I learned a technique on this BB that seems to be working well for me to prevent cracking.
What you do, is wrap your entire springform pan with Tin Foil, then place it into another large pan filled with water to within an inch of the top of the springform pan. You then bake it like this, and it will prevent cracking, and mine have come out beautifully since I adopted this technique where previously I had lots of cracks!!
Hope this helps.

[Peeps]

I heard on some cooking show that cracking can be caused by cooling the cheesecake too quickly. I don't know if that is true but their method made a big difference for me and I haven't had any cracking since trying it. (I do it for lemon bars too since mine always crack).
What they suggest is when it is done baking to turn off the oven and open the oven door just slightly, leaving the cheesecake in the oven. Let it cool down to room temp this way, which is very slowly, then move it to the counter. I usually gradually open the oven door a bit more.
They also suggested for more even baking to stick a wooden spoon in your oven door to keep it cracked while backing, causing the temperature to stay up constantly rather than cooling/reheating like some ovens do - but I haven't tried that.
Hope this helps!

[JennieL]

Like Peeps, I let my cheesecake cool in the oven and I haven't had one crack yet.

[AdGirl]

i've also been told multiple times that if you will cracks that liken the grand canyon if you overbeat the batter. you should only stir enough to just incorporate the ingredients. if too much air is beaten in, you'll have cracks.

i love cheesecake! :D

[Shirley Ekstein]

Thanks so much, all of you. Have actually tried cooling in the oven but the wretched thing still cracked - however, have not tried the bain marie technique so will do so - makes sense, cos will keep the heat more even - also think I might quite likely have been over-beating the batter cos have been using a hand-held electric whisk - shall, therefore, try a mixture of these 2 techniques. Hoping for success and thank you all for taking the trouble to reply. It's much appreciated.