Cracks in the cheesecake

What are your secrets to prevent a crack in the top of cheesecake? I have read and tried various things such as letting it cool in the oven with a pan of H2O. I use a springform pan. My methods seem more hit or miss. Sometimes the cheesecake looks beautiful, sometimes not. Thanks again for your tips.

Immediately after removing the cheesecake from the oven, run a paring knife around the edge of the cheesecake, separating the edges of the cheesecake from the sides of the pan. Since I began using this technique, the cracks have all but disappeared.

Keep eating,
J. Ro

cooks illustrated has two secrets:

1) use an instant-read thermometer and take the cheesecake out of the oven when the inside reaches 150 degrees fahrenheit. if the cake hits 160 it's almost guaranteed to crack, they say.
2) as soon as the cheesecake leaves the oven, run a paring knife around the cake, separating it from the pan.. otherwise when it shrinks during cooling it'll crack.

My grandmother's [well, probably Kraft's recipe, probably] cheesecake recipe included a sour cream layer added toward the end of the baking. Hid any cracks. Tasted good, too.

I like the paring knife trick. Do you remove the springform sides, too, while it cools? Or will the cake slump too much in the cooling?

I hope you know about cooking the whole cheesecake in a water bath?
It keeps the temp down on the cake, but it keeps the whole oven moister. The whole thing should cool down in the oven, in the bath.

Cook for an hour, cool for an hour is our typical recipe.

Hi,

When a cheesecake cracks it is due to overcooking. You may want to stick an oven thermometer in your oven to double-check you have the temperature the oven states. If the temperature is accurate, then you may want to amend the cooking time.

Cook's Illustrated had an interested article on cheesecakes a few years ago where the same recipe cooked for various lengths of time produced different textures. The shorter the cooking time, the creamier the cheese cake. The longer the cookiing time, the more dense (and dry for my taste) the cheese cake will be. My Grandmother's recipe was vanilla-flavored and creamy textured. When I have occasionally overbaked I get a different texture and the crack.