Ina Garten-Inspired Cheesecake
The crack across the top gets blamed on the oven, on the water bath, on cooling too fast. Most of the time it was put there by the mixer.
Air beaten into cheesecake batter expands in the oven, pushes the surface up, and then collapses as it cools — and the surface tears. A cheesecake is a custard, not a cake. It wants no aeration at all. Beat the cream cheese and sugar on the lowest speed the mixer has, add the eggs one at a time on low, and scrape the bowl often so you are not compensating with more mixing.
The batter should look dense and slightly glossy, not light and fluffy.
Jump to the recipe ↓Ina Garten-Inspired Cheesecake
Serves 12 · Dessert
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 15 min
- Total
- 8 hr
Moderate9 steps, 10 ingredients, over two hours
Ingredients
For the base
- 250 g digestive biscuits, crushed
- 100 g butter, melted
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
For the filling
- 900 g full-fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 250 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 200 g soured cream, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Method
- Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan). Line a 23 cm springform tin and wrap the outside in two layers of foil.
- Mix the base ingredients, press into the tin, and bake. Cool.10 minutes
- Beat the cream cheese and sugar on the lowest speed until smooth, scraping twice.
- Add the eggs one at a time, on low, mixing only until each disappears.
- Mix in the soured cream, vanilla, lemon and salt.
- Pour over the base. Sit the tin in a roasting tray and add boiling water halfway up.
- Bake. The edge should be set and the centre still wobble as one mass.65–75 minutes
- Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar for.1 hour
- Chill at least, ideally overnight.6 hours
Everything at room temperature, especially the cream cheese
Cold cream cheese does not smooth out. It breaks into small lumps that stay lumpy however long you beat, and beating longer is exactly what you must not do. Take it out two hours ahead. Same for the eggs and the soured cream.
Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar
The other cause of cracking is a fast temperature drop — the outside contracts while the centre is still expanding. When the time is up, switch the oven off, wedge the door open with a wooden spoon and leave the cheesecake there for an hour. It cools by degrees instead of falling off a cliff.
Why the foil, and what to do without it
The foil keeps the water bath out of the base. Springform tins all leak eventually. If yours has, sit the tin inside a slightly larger cake tin instead of wrapping it, or put the water in a tray on the shelf below — you lose some of the evenness but none of the humidity.
Storing
Five days refrigerated, covered. It freezes well whole or in slices for three months; thaw overnight in the fridge. Cut it with a hot dry knife, wiped between slices.
Questions people ask
Why did my cheesecake crack?
Usually air beaten into the batter. Mix on low, and cool it slowly in the switched-off oven.
Do I need a water bath?
It is the most reliable way to get an even, creamy set. Without one, expect a firmer edge.
Why is it lumpy?
The cream cheese was cold. It has to be properly at room temperature.
How do I know when it is done?
The outer 5 cm is set and the middle wobbles as a single mass. It firms up completely in the fridge.
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