Does anyone know how to keep a cheesecake from cracking? I made 2 cheesecakes today a strawberry one and a New York Cheesecake. The new York cheesecake was fine when I took it out of the oven. After it started to cool off it cracked down the center. Boy was I bummed. The strawberry one turned out fine. I can't figure out what I did wrong. I have had this problem on occasion before. Sometimes they crack on me and sometimes they don't. Does anyone out there have any idea what I could be doing wrong? Please help!

The cake is sticking to the sides of the pan, and when it shrinks back as it cools, the sides do not come with it, so the center cracks outward to accommodate the change in internal temperature.

I line the sides of my springform pan with parchment paper, then add my crust. Bake 10 minutes and let cool. Then I add my batter, and immediately before I put the cheesecake into the bain marie, I run a knife around the pan, in between the pan and the parchment.

Ever since I started doing this, I have never cracked a cheesecake.

Theresa

I run the knife around it again immediately after it is done baking, before I leave it in the oven for the second hour. It keeps the

In addition to what tmriga said and for the same reason: I also run a knife/offset spatula between the crust and pan as soon as I take it out of the oven.

Also, when my cheesecake begins to brown on the edges and looses its jiggle, I turn off the oven and let it sit in the oven for about 15 minutes before removing. That helps it not shrink too fast.

-Rezzy

I had this problem a while back and had posted a thread about it a few months ago. I have a really nice cheesecake recipe.... makes a really nice, tall, very dense cheesecake... sometime it would crack, and sometimes it wouldn't.

When I baked mine, I would put a pan of water on the lower shelf as soon as the oven was turned on and then put the cheesecake on the shelf above. A lot of the suggestions I got on here said to put the cheesecake IN the pan of water. Well, I've done that many times now, and it hasn't cracked one single time.

However, the down side to this is that my cheesecakes aren't as dense anymore. I've tried fiddling with the recipe a bit to try and get it thicker/denser (adding flour, less eggs, less sour cream etc), but I still get a creamier version of my other one. (it's like it has set up, but it's much softer than when I do it the other way).

I prefer it to be denser... so if I know I'm going to have the top of the cheesecake be plain... then I put it in the water. If the top is going to be covered with fruit or something, I put the water and the cake on two separate racks.

I'm still playing with the original 'water and cheesecake pan on two different racks' recipe, because I definitely prefer that thicker cheesecake. The last three I made came out perfect and I had added an extra egg, added some flour, and lined the sides with parchment paper. But I'm not calling that a success yet.. could still be a fluke! Also... definitely don't overmix anything...too much air is bad.

Oh, one other thing... make sure your oven temp is accurate. Several people had told me that the cheesecake are finicky to temps, and my oven was off by several degrees.

Hope this helps... definitely frustrating.
Denise