Besides the water bath, the notorious cracking, a long baking time, and an unimaginably long cooling time, cheesecake has one problem: chunks of unmixed cream cheese. Cakes and quick breads made with flour are often okay if there are small clumps of unmixed ingredients in them—it usually shakes out in the oven. Cheesecake, however, is different. Everything has to be perfectly mixed. And it turns out that us professional bakers have been wrong all along when we told you how to avoid them.

In general, the classic technique for making a smooth cheesecake is to start with room temperature cream cheese (which can be as low as 55°F or 60°F), use an electric mixer, scrape the sides of the bowl five thousand times, and add the liquid ingredients a little at a time—all to avoid lumps. But the much quicker, less completely irritating way to make a silky cheesecake filling is to start with melted—and warm—ingredients.

Cheesecakes are made with cream cheese, eggs, liquids or semi-liquids, and sugar. The desired temperature for all of these ingredients (except dry ingredients and anything a teaspoon or less) is warmer than room temperature: between 92°F-135°F. Your ingredients will mix best if they are all at about the same warm temperature, and this can be much faster than waiting hours for your cream cheese to sit on the counter.

Cut the amount of cream cheese you need for your recipe into large chunks and place them in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the bowl for two to three minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir. After about a minute, you will see the cream cheese start to loosen up. By the end, the bottom of the bowl should be noticeably warm and the texture of the cream cheese should be fluffy and soft, kind of like what it looks like when you spread cream cheese on a hot bagel and it squirts out the back. Stir the cheese until all the lumps are gone and it looks deliciously smooth. If you find any firm lumps, throw it back in for another 20 seconds.