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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Mango Cheesecake

Crust

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or any vanilla biscuit/cookie crumbs)
2 Tablespoons sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together graham cracker, sugar and butter and press into the bottom of a 10" springform (cheesecake) pan. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Cool.

Filling

3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar (can increase, per your taste)
5 eggs*
2 cups mango puree**
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Oven temperature: 300 degrees. Using a hand mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Mix in sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined. Mix in mango puree and lemon juice. Pour into crust.

I used a water bath method to cook it.*** (This prevents cracking.) Place the pan in 1 or 2 layers of aluminum foil, then place in a large roasting pan. Pour in enough cold water to go 3/4 the way up the side of the cheesecake pan. Bake for 90 minutes. (The cheesecake should be firm, but still "jiggle".) Turn the oven off and let the cheescake sit in the oven at least 30 minutes. Refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight. Before serving, run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen it, then unclip the clasp and remove the outer ring of the springform pan. Garnish with mango slices and/or mango puree.

*Next time I would try decreasing the amount of eggs to 3 or 4
**The canned mango puree from the Asian stores is presweetened
***I suppose if you are in a hurry and don't mind possible cracking (easy enough to cover the cracks with a sauce, fruits or whipped cream), you can increase the oven temp to 325, skip the water bath and bake for about 1 hour, cool and refrigerate.