How long do I bake a cheesecake?

[Fairy]

Hey there. I have a great recipe for cheesecake, but every time I make it I have to wing it on the bake time. The recipe says bake for an hour and 5 minutes, but honestly, I take it out,a nd the middle is still loose and wiggly, so I usually end up having to put it back in for at least another half hour. Sometimes it then cracks on top and sometimes it doesn't. Is it supposed to be loose and wiggly after an hour and 5 minutes? I mean WIGGLY. Please advise, how long am I truly supposed to bake this sucker? It's a standard size, no funky ingredients, just your standard cheesecake.

[MamaMolly]

I bake the New York Cheesecake one from the Joy of Cooking cookbook...I don't know where the book is at the moment, but if I recall it gets cooked at areally high temp. for about 30 minutes, then the temp. is progressively dropped for the next 3-4 hours. It sounds harder than it is, honestly! It makes a killer cake.

I think the cracking could be resolved by a water bath, where you sit the cake pan in a shallow dish of water. Proper directions are also in the Joy, or I'm sure you can google them...That's what I do when I can't remember a recipe. I google it, then read through several, and kind of mix it together. Good luck!

HTH,
Molly

[anamika]

I hat making cheesecakes for this reason - I can never be sure they are done. My Thanksgiving cheesecake was wiggly *after* cooling also so I actually put it back in the oven, the next day, for another 35 mins. It got eaten too fast to tell if it firmed up after that LOL.
I don't think the extra heating hurt the taste at all.