Mango Cheesecake

What’s up with me and mangoes these days you say? I honestly have no idea. No, no mango themes whatsoever, just some odd coincidence maybe. I “pin” this incredibly easy mango cheesecake recipe then the following day I find these delicious Ataulfo mangoes at Wegmans. So I guess it’s just the natural progression of things. Although I was pretty upset that I didn’t make Cinco de Mayo dishes. I didn’t even realize that it was May 5th until I got home from the store. Oh well. Anyway, there’s really no other interesting side story to this so let me just get straight to the recipe.

Oh wait, I adapted this recipe from Manjula’s Kitchen. Manjula is just far too adorable. You should check out her youtube channel. I just made some few adjustments, nothing major, I just eliminated cardamom from my recipe.

Before anything else, let me apologize now for the sucky photos.

Mango Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Ataulfo Mangoes, that’s about 3 mangoes
• 16 oz. cream cheese
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 1 C crushed Graham crackers
• 1/3 stick melted butter
• 1/2 tsp. Lemon zest and lemon juice (optional)
• Pan spray

Here’s how:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare round 9″ baking pan and spray with vegetable oil.
2. In a food processor, add graham crackers and melted butter. Process until crackers are crushed into crumbs. Pour crumbs into the baking pan and press down. Bake for 5 minutes then take out of the oven and allow to cool down.
3. Place mangoes  into the food processor bowl and process for a couple of seconds. Then add the cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch and process for 15-20 seconds. Pour out mixture into the pie crust and bake anywhere between 30-40 minutes.
4. Take the cheesecake out of the oven and allow to cool down then chill in the fridge for about 2-3 hours before serving.

The recipe, like what I said earlier is really simple yet delicious. Mine turned out REALLY tart. I added the lemon zest and juice to achieve that bright, citrussy note towards the end, but I think I went a little bit overboard. Or maybe it would’ve worked if I didn’t put too much mangoes. The original recipe calls for only 1 huge mango. Manjula used the red kind which are significantly larger that Ataulfo. I may have overcompensated for that. 🙂 And maybe next time I make this, I will try to use the recipe that requires flour and eggs because this is almost like pudding pie only harder? I don’t know if it’s the recipe or that my cake didn’t set very well since I used the same amount of cooking time as Manjula’s where she used only 12 oz. of creamcheese. I don’t know. Maybe the cheese cake experts out there can help me? but this is truly good. Perfect for the summer. Like what I said earlier, it’s a nice break from heavy and dense desserts. It brightens up your palate and this is a perfect summer treat. Hey! Don’t forget Mother’s Day, too!

Edit: In Manjula’s recipe, she placed all the ingredients together. I decided to process the mango for a couple of seconds before adding the cream cheese. In this manner, I don’t over process the cream cheese by trying to break down all the mango pieces. I also used cream cheese straight out of the fridge. This gave me more room to correct the mixture and not lose the integrity of the cream cheese. I used regular cream cheese and not the reduced or fat free variety. I don’t know but my head tells me I need all the fat to hold the dessert together. i don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong.