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I cheat at cheesecake.

I don't give it a bath, I put it in a sauna. A New York sauna.

My oven goes up to 500 - which is absolutely not 500, because that oven calibration guy won't get back to me and I'm pretty sure I'm on a blacklist of kitchen repair personnel - but it goes up, the cheesecake sits in there for 15 minutes, and then I drop the oven down to "200" without opening the door, and BOOM! Perfect cheesecake every time. Nice bronzed top like some kind of Ken doll. But made of cheesecake. Which is way better than a Ken doll, have you looked at his bits and particles? There's painted-on boxer briefs there!

My trick is - and I've never had a cheesecake crack - I put it OVER a water bath. A 9x9 Pyrex 3/4 full of basic tap water. I let that come up with the oven while it's headed toward 500, slam the cheesecake in, and then there's no looking back. I'm way too terrified of a cheesecake swamp, even in a set of tinfoil armor, to actually put that much money...I mean, cream cheese...in a swimming pool. Did I mention that dairy prices are outrageous? Not like a Cyndi Lauper "Woo the 80's RAWK" hilarious, more like a "Holy Crabcakes, my wallet is aflame!" outrageous. So I set the cheesecake above the waterbath. The super-low over temp combined with a pore-cleansing steambath inside the oven mean that it's cooked gently enough (minus the 500 degree start) that it won't crack.

But that's New York style. Lotsa eggs, tall like the Empire State Building, all that jazz. Or is that Chicago? My musicals and metaphors are hazy. I don't know that you'd get the same results with a lower temp or consistently-temped cheesecake.

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I use this chocolate cake recipe myself, its my favorite. And I have to say your explanation of how you felt once you put the coffee in it, is DEAD ON!!!!! hahaha! Love this!

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Truly, you are <3 I should have put a bit in there about my post-cheesecake-chilling-techniques...I *do* rapid chill it. In a Michigan winter, I pop all the windows open in my breezeway and put it on a sill. It's like a blast chiller plus turbo-fan. But in a nod to safety, and especially because these things tend to get made around the holidays when we're all too boozy to (okay, okay, when I'm too boozy) to pay much attention to when the ice tray has gone liquid under the shrimp, or the cheesecake is starting to sweat a bit, PLEASE everyone follow food safety rules and get the darned things down to a safe temp. I would hate to see anyone poison Great Aunt Edna.

k8 is absolutely accurate that your guests and customers will run you out of TP and business if you give them a disease bomb shaped like a delicacy of cheesecakey goodness.

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I do agree that food safety is of utmost importance. I don't advocate sacrificing safety for vanity!

My cooking and baking habits were taught to me by one grandmother and great-grandmother, and reinforced by my mother, and I learned to cook in the late 70's. I rarely refrigerate baked goods, although cheesecakes are one of the exceptions. BUT (and this is a _huge_ but), I'm not a professional and I don't have any food licenses to risk. A professional baker making cheesecakes for paying customers is going to have to be _MUCH_ stricter than I am (because licensing standards are designed so even a 1-in-a-million bad result shouldn't happen).

I would be very hesitant to cook a cheesecake in a water bath until jiggly and then dump it in an ice bath or shove it in the fridge/freezer. A "jiggly" cheesecake, by it's very definition, is not "done" cooking. If you pull it from the oven after one hour's baking and then immediately put it in the fridge, there's a good chance it won't set up all the way. A half-set cheesecake is not finished and absolutely SHOULD NOT be served. Of course, as with everything, it all depends on the recipe used, the depth of the pan and the filling, your actual oven temperatures and heating cycle, the amount of jiggle, etc.