The dreaded cheesecake crack

[Danielle]

I love making cheesecake, but wonder how to prevent the top from cracking? The last time my husband and I made one together, a huge crack developed in the center during the cooking process. Obviously the crack does not affect the way the cheesecake tastes, but it's just not aesthetically pleasing, especially if you're making it for guests. Any tricks of the trade?

[lorilei]

I just read an article about cheesecake the other day, and it gave two hints for preventing cracks:

1) Be sure not to overbake cheesecake (bake only until just set)

2) Do not put cake directly into fridge. Cool at room temperature under a very large bowl. This really does work!!

Apparently, keeping the cheesecake from cooling too quickly is the key to preventing cracks.

[Laura B]

I read a tip recently about preventing cracks. You should run a knife around the edge of the pan as soon as you take it out of the oven. Because cheesecake shrinks as it cools, you need to make sure that the outside edge of the cheesecake is not stuck to your springform pan. If it is stuck, the shrinking of the cheesecake pulls against the stuck edge and can cause cracks all over.

[lorilei]

Laura - genius, I tell you http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

That's probably why the more cooked the cheesecake is, the more it dries out and pulls away from the sides!

I haven't had too much trouble with cheesecake cracks -- could it also have something to do with composition, or humidity?

There's always 60,000 theories for things like this.

[Laura B]

I had a few problems when I made the lemon-swirled cheesecake, and I posted desparately looking for help. I forget who, but someone (maybe Tammy/MN) recommended turning the heat off in the oven, cracking the door, and leaving the cheesecake in there for another 30 minutes or an hour. This seems like it is based on the same principle as leaving it at room temperature but putting the big bowl on top. If it cools slowly enough it ought to reduce cracks as well. The best thing may be to run your knife around the edge and then either put it back in the warm turned-off oven or under the bowl.

About the leaving it in the oven trick - does anyone know about this? Do you reduce the amount of time that it spends cooking?



[This message has been edited by Laura B (edited 07-11-2000).]

[Gail]

Okay, first let me go on record as saying I am not The Cheesecake Guru. As a matter of fact, I hadn't made one in probably ten years before all your ravings about that lemon cheesecake urged me out of retirement.
I didn't make it till way after all of you had stopped talking about it and I copied everyone's comments to my hard disk. Yes, it was Tammy who'd suggested leaving the cake in with the heat off the last hour, which perhaps I might try on a recipe I'd done before, but on an untried commodity, I tend to be more cautious. Since it seemed pretty much unanimous that the cake needed more making time than published, I went with that and added about 15 minutes onto the baking time. (Oh, forgot to mention, my thermostat was also suspect, so I'd been adjusting the heat up and down to make things worse.) Anyway, I did eventually end up with the proper oven temperature and the extra 15 minutes in the oven, after which the thing still looked a smidge underdone. At this point, I turned off the oven, cracked the door and left the thing in a while. It came out great-- no crack, not overcooked.