Cheesecake Success!

Just before Valentine's Day I posted about the Rich Heath Bits Cheesecake that I made my family for Christmas. While it certainly wasn't perfect (we won't mention the fact that when I was removing the hardened crust from the fridge I accidentally sprung the latch on the spring-form pan and dropped my crust all over the floor and had to piece it back together), I did manage to accomplish my biggest goal regarding the cheesecake--and cross another item off my "101 in 1001 list" in the process--my cheesecake came out of the oven with no cracks!

I know the Heath masks the top a little bit, but trust me, no cracks under there!

I'd always heard of a bunch of different methods that people use to keep their cheesecakes from cracking (water baths, parchment paper, etc), but I foolishly thought that I was "above" those methods and that if I just prepared the cheesecake correctly and followed the steps carefully that the cheesecake would come out crack-free on its own. I fully realize that the reason those techniques exist is that without them, a cheesecake is very susceptible to cracking. Now, that doesn't mean it's impossible to make a crack-free cheesecake without any modifications, but when they are so easy and don't affect the cheesecake, what's the point in not doing them?

Here's a rundown of what I did:

Per most cheesecake recipes, I brought my ingredients to room temperature before mixing. I used my stand mixture (on medium speed) to beat the cream cheese and sugar, and then turned it down to "stir" as I added each egg. After that point, I took it off the stand and mixed the remaining ingredients in by hand (I've read that working too much air into the batter is one of the main culprits of cracks). Once I poured the filling into the crust I let it settle just a little bit to see if any air bubbles would rise to the top and then I popped them. To bake the cheesecake, I placed the oven rack in the middle of the oven and on the rack just below that I placed a jelly roll pan of water. Once the cheesecake had finished baking, I turned the oven off and left the cheesecake in there with the door cracked and allowed it to slowly come to room temperature. Additionally, before making the crust, I lined the bottom and sides of my spring-form pan with parchment paper. 

Truthfully, I think the parchment paper made the biggest difference. My cheesecake filling always ends up coming up over the edge of my crust, and as it cools the filling would want to pull inward. However, the outer edges of the cheesecake would be stuck to the pan, which would cause a crack to form as the cheesecake settled and pulled away from itself. Although you can bet I'll still be using the water bath next time I make a cheesecake--if it ain't broke don't fix it!