Mango Cheesecake

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All Mangoes are not created equal.

What I am trying to get at here is, this is a very seasonal dish, not all mangoes will be up for the task at hand, and the kind you need for this cheesecake are not always readily available. First, the common grocery store variety, you know the big green and red ones are NOT going to work. I know. I speak from experience, I had to find out the hard way, as I happily agreed to bring a cheesecake to a good friend’s birthday party. Even blending cannot get rid of the stringy fibers inside that fruit and unless you’re a cat and you don’t mind getting hair between your teeth or you like getting hairballs…(And juuust on the off chance that you are, I bet your dinner guests might not )

The Mighty Mango, an infographic← Just to give you an idea, the Mango varieties out there are in the hundreds, if not thousands. Over 500 varieties are known in India, the largest producer of mango in the world.

Okay, so now that we know what not to do, let’s get to what you do need 😉 There’s a variety called Champagne or Ataulfo Mango, it’s smaller, flatter and oblong in shape and yellow. Indian grocers might be a good source, they also carry a shortcut item I’ll cover a bit later here. If you live in other parts of the world, you might be lucky and get your fingers on any number of varieties of tasty mangoes that would work, but in the US there seems to be not that much choice. So after you got yourself the perfect mango to make the cake, you will need to start the day before you want to eat this, since it requires to get chilled and set in the fridge overnight.

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Ingredients

Crust:

  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

  • 3 packets of cream cheese (8oz each), softened and brought to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar*
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups pureed mango (from 4-5 Champagne Mangoes)*

*lazy version/or when the proper mango cannot be found: Get Kesar Mango pulp from an Indian Grocer, omit the sugar in the filling, since the canned Mango pulp is sweetened already. Works great and is less messy. Get 1 mango to decorate the top of the cake

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F.
  • Butter a 9″ Ø Spring form pan.
  • To make the crust,  stir together crumbs and the 2 tbsp sugar. Add the melted butter and mix until evenly moistened. Then press crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan (only bottom, not up the sides)

imageMake sure you pack the crumb crust down firmly. Push progressively more as the crust starts to hold together

  • Bake until set, 12 minutes, then cool completely
  • For filling, peel and chop mango, then blend until smooth
  • (If you turned off the oven and did this in two steps, preheat the oven to 325°F again.)
  • Mix softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until completely creamy and no little chunks remain.
  • Add eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition.
  • Add the mango puree, beat until well blended, then pour filling over crust into springform. Wrap bottom of springform pan in a layer of aluminum foil. Then bake until the edges are golden and puffed and the cake is set (it should only move very slightly when the pan is shaken gently, if the whole thing jiggles, it’s not set yet) about 1 hour and 25 minutes
  • Cool cake one hour. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.
  • Before serving, run a sharp thin knife around the edges of the pan to loosen cake. Remove ring. Transfer cake to serving dish and garnish with additional sliced magoes

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