Mango cheesecake

Come the summers and we have the crates of gorgeous mangoes coming up in the market.

While the beloved summer fruit can be enjoyed in many forms like milk shakes, icecream, sorbet or even by its own, the cheesecake elevates this fruit to a completely new level.

So, here is the recipe which won hearts at my home -

Ingredients

For crust

• Digestive biscuits 120 gms

• Caster sugar 1 or 2 tablespoons

• Butter 70 grams

For cake

• Cream cheese 500gms

• Plain flour 1 tablespoon

• 2 eggs

• Zest and juice of one lemon

• Zest of 1 orange, juice of half orange

• Caster sugar 120 grams

• 3/4th cup Sour cream (or full fat cream with 1 tablespoon lime juice)

• vanilla extract 1 tsp 

• Mango puree - 1.5 Alphonso mango pureed

For cream topping

• Full fat whipping cream 200 grams

• Icing sugar 50 grams

• Diced mango - 1

Preparation

Part 1 - Crust 1

1. Prepare the spring foam tin - butter the sides, place baking paper on the bottom on the tin. Cover the outside edge of the tin with 2-3 layers of foil paper - the cheesecake will be placed in a water bath for baking. The foil paper allows the cake to be baked without water seeping in from the springfoam pan.

2. To begin with the crust, crush digestive biscuits in a bowl, mix sugar and add melted butter. Crush with your hands till it resembles fine bread crumbs.

3. Press into prepared springfoam baking pan and set aside

Part 2 - Cake filling

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

2. In a bowl beat cream cheese till soft and smooth, about 5 mins when mixing by hand.

3. Add sugar and continue beating softly, I did not use my blender as it may be too fast for cream cheese

4. Add one egg at a time until well blended

5. Add sour cream, flour and lemon and orange zest and juice one by one

6. Divide the batter into two halves, with one part about two spoonfuls more than the other.

7. In the smaller part, incorporate the mango puree and mix by hand

8. In the larger part, add vanilla extract.

9. Now we should have two approximately same sized parts, one in mango and one in vanilla.

10. Pour the vanilla cheesecake mixture on the biscuit base

11. Set in the fridge for about 5-10 minutes

12. Then pour the mango cheesecake mixture on top gently, so that the two parts create distinct layers and do not merge into each other

13. Tap the sides gently to ease out any air bubbles. The top should be smooth and free of any lumps

14. Total baking time is 45-50 minutes. However, temperature of the oven needs to be gradually reduced during this time. for the first 25 minutes, bake at 180 degrees. Then reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees. After 10 minutes reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees and finally after another 10 minutes reduce to 150 degrees.

15. At this point, we have passed 45 minutes of baking time and the cake must be almost ready.The top should appear to be golden yellow. If it appears to be browning too much cover the top with a foil. We are looking for a cake which is leaving the tin from the sides but still has a little wobble in the centre.

16. After 10 minutes (55 min of total baking time), switch off the oven and leave cake in the oven for another one hour

17. For a perfect cheesecake without any cracks, the temperature needs to be lowered gradually. Any sudden dip in the surrounding temperature will lead to a brittle cheesecake

18. After one hour, open the oven door with cake still in

19. Once the oven is completely cooled down, take the cake out and leave on a table top until it is at room temperature

20. Chill the cake in fridge over night or minimum 6-8 hours

For the topping

1. Before you serve, whip full fat cream with sugar until soft peaks are formed and spread evenly above the cheesecake

2. Top with chilled and cut fresh mangoes and serve

3. Alternatively, if you do not like too much cream, you can warm any favourite jam over a water bath or in a microwave in short bursts and pour over the cheesecake