falling cheesecake

My tried and true solution to this problem is two-fold:

1) When you add your eggs to the cream cheese mixture, beat them up first and add them a bit at a time, beating on the lowest speed possible. Scrape the sides of the bowl to smooth out lumps and then add the remaining eggs. What you want to avoid here is beating air into the eggs, and hence the mixture. During baking these air bubbles expand, but since there is no flour to support them they burst upon cooling and the center collapses as all souffles do eventually.

2) Bake your cheesecake in a water bath. In other words, place your cheesecake pan in a larger cake pan, then fill pan with water 2/3 up the side of your cheesecake pan. It will take longer to bake, but it will bake evenly and with little sinking or collapsing in the center. You may want to wrap the outside of your springform pan with foil to keep the water from seeping in through the joints. When the center of your cheesecake is set, but still a little jiggly, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool in the water bath until room temp, then chill.

Good Luck, I hope this works for you, it always does for me.

Maybe you will find the following thread usefull as well.
One of my favourites in CT :)

Problems Baking Cheesecake

It may not be the method of cooling which is making your cheesecake fall but rather any number of variables from how you made it, what order you incorporated your ingredients in and how, time and temperature of baking and cooling, and more.

Why don't you try the following recipe, see if it works for you and let us know how it turns out for you.

Sour Cream Cheesecake

:chef:

Cheesecake falling solutions

Hooray! A topic that I can finally post on as this is my only area of expertise. (I own an artisan cheesecake baking company in Portland, OR).

I agree with the others who are surmising that your method of combining the ingredients is most likely the culprit. It definitely sounds as if too much air is being beaten in with the eggs- add them one at a time on slowest speed possible and scrape both beater and bowl after each addition.

I do not use a water bath and I NEVER have cracked cheesecakes or ones that fall (since mine bake relatively flat and cool to absolutely flat) with the following practices:

1) When you preheat the oven, place a pie pan two thirds filled with water on the bottom shelf of your oven. I just use an aluminum one after I accidently broke a glass one that burned dry- oops! The steam from the water creates a similar effect as the water bath but it's a lot easier to deal with:bounce:

2) I bake all of my cheesecakes regardless of size or recipe at 325 degrees. I bake the 9 inch size for exactly 35 minutes and it is perfect every time (By the way I do pre-bake and fully cool every kind of crust be it shortbread or any kind of crumb crust first to enhance the crispness and longevity thereof). I also make the mini 4 inch size and bake those for 16 minutes at 325 degrees. The larger sizes will have an area in the center that appear undercooked the size of your palm or slightly bigger. Do not be alarmed! This will firm up while it rests on your cooling rack.

3) Grease (butter only) the inside of the entire spring form pan or Magic Line pan with the removable bottom (my favorite!) to help avoid the batter from creeping up the side and then falling. Also, after you have removed it after baking, let it cool approximately 7-8 minutes and then run a very thin bladed knife GENTLY around the very edge of the pan to separate the cake from the pan for the rest of the cooling process. It will make it much easier to remove from pan later. By the way, I actually cool the cheesecakes in their pans overnight before I remove them so that I avoid cracking them by removing the pan sides too soon ( a mistake I made several times earlier in my cheesecake forays due to being anxious to see it out of the pan)

Once you master one, you'll be hooked! Hope this helps! Let me know!!! Alison

Hey K!

Thanks for your kind response. I did want to mention that when I quoted the 35 minute bake time it is for my master recipe for a 9 inch pan which includes 3 8oz. packages cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 whole eggs, 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract and whatever else I'm mixing in the batter. I also line my pans with a parchment circle and because I prebake all of the custs, they are fim enough to be able to be lifted by hand from the bottom so I can peel the parchment off. :chef:

Happy baking to you and your hubby! Alison

BitnerSweets,
Your post about the water pan caught my eye. I would like more info on the steam theory. We have always used h2o baths. I always assumed it was to keep heat away from the sides of the pan. Is there a difference in texture when baked without steam VS bakes with steam. I have never baked our riccotta cakes or grain cakes w/h20, but now I'm wondering? any info would be appreciated.

panini,

The water in the bain mairie takes longer to heat and longer to cool than air, thus maintaining the temperature and making it much more stable and consistent and ensuring that the cheesecake (which is really a type of custard) cooks evenly.

There is an official scientific term for this phenomenon but I can't think of it off the top of my head. The recipe I posted above utilizes this method.

Only fill with water to 2/3 the height of the cake or you will be steaming it instead of baking.

:chef:

water bath leakage

With regard to using a water bath, does anyone besides me have the problem of moisture leaking into the springform pan from the water bath? I've tried wrapping the pan in aluminum foil but I notice moisture on the bottom of my cake pan. Is this just condensation or have I sprung a leak despite the foil?

I'd appreciate any advice on this problem.

homechef777,

Advice? Never use a spring form pan when utilizing a water bath. Use a regular, solid pan lined with parchment paper.

Steam theory

Hey panini- I was glad the moderator jumped in with a scientific reply. Because I am a home cook turned professional, I don't really have the background on all of the food science. I will tell you that in my personal experience, the cheesecakes baked in a steamy oven do not crack on me and are very creamy in nature, whereas the times where I did not use a pan of steaming water, they tended to develop hairline cracks all around the edges ( a sign of baking in too high of a temp or overbaking even though the time and temp were the same) and they cracked more often than not. I also found them to be slightly drier in their texture.

Bingo!

Aaahhh! "Water has a very high "specific heat" so it can absorb a lot of energy without changing temperature."

If you really want to know about making a cheesecake, check this out: The Trouble With Cheesecake

Read it all the way thru and I promise it will help. By the way, welcome to ChefTalk.

:)

I just recently  got  my  mom's cheesecake recipe , its  3 packages cream cheese , 1 cup sugar , 1 tsp  vanilla and 5 eggs ... she says  not to use room temp eggs ... and  she never uses a water bath of any kind and her cheesecakes are  always  perfect... I can't seem to keep mine  from  collapsing ... thats why I  searched and  found this  forum...   could she be  wrong on the egg  count ?  I have read several recipes here  one that actually calls for  cream  ( I am  assuming heavy cream )  that I want to try ....  but  egg issue has me confused   mom is 78 ..and she verbally  dictated the recipe to me over the phone  from memory ... but I  trust her LOL she is a proffessional baker :)  she has  been one for  60  years .....