Mango swirl cheesecake squares

I can't decide which one is closer to me - a cheesecake or a mango dessert!

I have made a simple mango cheese cake before and this time around I decided to be a bit playful with the design. I ditched the extra layer of whipped cream on top, saved a bit of mango puree from the ingredients to make the mesmerizing swirls and served with a couple of spoonfuls of diced fresh mango. The result couldn't have been more delightful.

Ingredients

For crust

• Digestive biscuits 120 gms

• Butter 70 grams - melted

For cake

• 500 gm Cream cheese

• Plain flour 1 tablespoon

• 2 eggs

• Zest and juice of one lemon

• 1 cup (110 gm) Caster sugar

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

• vanilla extract 1 tsp 

• Mango puree of 2 Alphonso mangoes

To Serve - Freshly diced mangoes

Preparation

Crust

1. Prepare a square 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. You can use a normal square tin if you do not have a springfoam square. Make sure to place two layers of baking paper on the bottom with enough 'overhang' to allow you to lift the cake out of the pan

2. To begin with the crust, crush digestive biscuits in a bowl and add melted butter. place it in a zip lock bag and crush with a rolling pin till it resembles fine bread crumbs.

3. Press into the prepared springfoam baking pan

4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, bake the crust for 5 mins and take it out of the oven

5. Keep aside to cool

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 zest

6. Divide the batter into two halves.

7. In one half, incorporate 3/4th of mango puree and gently fold in

8. In the other half, add vanilla extract.

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

10. Pour the mango cheesecake mixture on the biscuit base

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

12. Then pour the vanilla 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. Now, with the remaining mango puree, dot the vanilla cheesecake layer with mango puree randomly. Run a toothpick in swift motion, cutting through the blobs of mango puree to create flowing swirls

15. Total baking time is 60-65 minutes. However, temperature of the oven needs to be gradually reduced during this time. for the first 30 minutes, bake at 180 degrees. Then reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees. After 15 minutes reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees and finally after another 15 minutes reduce to 150 degrees.

16. At this point, we have passed an hour 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.

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

18. 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

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

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

21. Chill the cake in fridge over night or minimum 6-8 hours, serve with freshly diced mangoes