Mango is my favourite fruit, cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts. But I realised I’ve never made a mango cheesecake.
This is not ok, so here we are.
This cheesecake was so soft and creamy, with a nice mango flavour and SUCH A GOOD SMELL. If you like mango flavoured desserts, you need to try this!
Video Tutorial
The mangoes
The most important part of this cheesecake is the mangoes….of course.
We’re going to purée some fresh mangoes in a food processor, and then mix this into the cheesecake batter.
Here are a few tips:
Use the right mangoes
You want to make sure that you use good mangoes, ones that are soft and juicy.
If the mangoes are not soft and juicy, they won’t purée very well. You will end up with mango mush instead of a smooth liquid.
So when it comes to buying the mangoes, squeeze them first. If they don’t feel soft, PUT THEM BACK they will cause you stress.
Sieve the purée
Mangoes can be ‘hairy’, I don’t know what the exact term is, but we don’t want this ‘hair’ in our cheesecake.
So after puréeing them, make sure to push this mixture through a sieve.
It might not look like there is hair in it, but after you have sieved it, you will have a thicker paste leftover in the sieve.
Whatever this is, we don’t want it in our cheesecake. We want a smooth, thin-ish purée.
Can I use mango purée from a can?
I know you can buy mango purée or mango pulp from a can. But I don’t love using this.
When you buy mango purée or pulp, it has a lot of sugar added into it. This is what preserves it.
This is normally fine for other things, but when it comes to the cheesecake, you don’t really want any extra sugar in it. It is already sweet enough.
And we also don’t want to reduce the amount of the sugar in the cheesecake too much, because this will start to affect the texture of the cheesecake.
So I prefer to use fresh mangoes and purée it myself.
With that being said, if you don’t mind extra sweetness, you can just buy the purée. It will make things a lot easier.
Why is the mango flavour in my cheesecake not intense?
I wanted to talk a little about this.
The intensity of the mango flavour in your cheesecake, totally depends on the mangoes.
When baking with mangoes (or with a lot of other fruits too) if the fruit doesn’t have a strong flavour already, the flavour isn’t going to be super strong in the final dessert.
This is why I mentioned that you should use good mangoes. This cheesecake is probably one that you should wait for mango season to make.
BUTTTT even if you don’t have the best mangoes, the flavour of the cheesecake will still be very good. The mango flavour will just be a little milder.
Personally I think this is fine, any mango flavour is better than no mango flavour.
Ingredients for the cheesecake
For the base of the cheesecake, all you need is some biscuits and melted butter. I used digestives but you can use whatever you want.
Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make the cheesecake batter:
- Cream cheese – make sure to use full fat cream cheese.
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too.
- Corn flour – also known as cornstarch. This is going to thicken the cheesecake as it bakes.
- Vanilla extract – for flavour.
- Double cream – also known as heavy cream. If you live in a place that doesn’t have double or heavy cream, whipping cream can be used.
- Melted white chocolate – this is not going to make your cheesecake taste white chocolate flavoured. It is just there to help with the texture.
A few tips when making the cheesecake
Use warm cream
When making the batter for the cheesecake, you want to use warm cream.
The reason for this is because after mixing the cream into the batter, we’re going to mix in the melted white chocolate.
If your batter is too cold, from either the cream cheese or the double cream, when you add the white chocolate, it will set up.
Then you’ll end with pieces of set chocolate in your batter, this is not the goal. So warm your cream.
Just heat it in your microwave for 30-60 seconds. You don’t need it to be hot, it should just feel warm when you touch it.
Wrap your cake tin
This depends on what kind of cake tin you are using.
I used a regular 8 inch cake tin. But if you are using a springform or loose bottomed tin, you want to wrap the outside of it, a few times, with tinfoil.
These reason for this is because we’re going to bake this cheesecake in a water bath. If you are using a springform/loose bottomed tin, the water will get into the cheesecake.
We don’t want this, so wrap it well with tinfoil.
Leave your cheesecake to cool in the oven
After the cheesecake has baked, you want to turn your oven off, open the door slightly, then leave the cheesecake to cool in there for 1 hour.
Cheesecakes don’t like drastic changes in temperature, so if you take it out of the oven straight way, the cheesecake might crack.
So letting it cool down slowly in the oven for an hour is better!
The water bath
If you’ve never baked something in a water bath, let me give a quick explanation on what it is.
When baking cheesecakes, it is better to bake them in water baths.
Like I mentioned, cheesecakes don’t like drastic changes in temperature. So you don’t want it to get too hot in the oven.
A water bath will regulate this temperature; it will stop the cheesecake from getting too hot.
This is going to give you a much smooth creamier cheesecake. So don’t try skipping the water bath, it will give you nicer tasting cheesecake.
How to make a water bath
All you need to do is get a large roasting tray or baking tin that has high sides.
Add the tin with the unbaked cheesecake in it, into the large tray. Remember to wrap the outside of the cheesecake tin with tin foil a few times, if you are using a springform/loose bottomed tin.
Pour some boiling water into this large roasting tray, until the water reaches about halfway up the sides of your cheesecake tin.
Now just carefully place this in your pre-heated oven!
Leaving the cheesecake to set overnight
The last step in making this mango cheesecake is to place it onto your fridge, after it has cooled down.
You need to leave it to set overnight, it will be too soft and jiggly at first. And also the flavours will have a chance to marinate, they will taste much better the next day.
I know if might feel like a long time to wait, but it is worth it.
These are some other cheesecake recipes you need to try:
Mango Cheesecake
Ingredients
500g freshly chopped mango (this is around 4-5 large mangoes)
- For the biscuit base:
280g biscuits (any work, I used digestives)
100g unsalted butter, melted
- For the cheesecake:
800g cream cheese
180g granulated sugar
60g corn flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
300ml double cream, warm (just heat it in your microwave for 30-60 seconds)
160g white chocolate, melted
200g mango purée
Directions
- Making the mango purée:
- Add your peeled and chopped mangoes into a food processor or blender. Process this until there are no chunks of mango and you get a thick purée.
- Push this purée through a sieve to get out any lumps or stringy pieces from the mango. After this, you should be left without around 300g of mango purée. You don't need to have this amount exactly, but around 300g is good.
- Leave this in your fridge.
- Making the biscuit base:
- At this point, pre-heat your oven to 170c/325f. Also grease and line an 8 inch cake tin.
- Start by crushing your biscuits until you get fine crumbs. You can either do this in a food processor, or you can just add them into a food bag and hit them with a rolling pin.
- Mix these with the melted butter, then add this mixture into your prepared tin. Press this down until you get an even compact layer.
- Leave this aside.
- Making the cheesecake:
- In a large bowl, add the cream cheese, sugar, corn flour and vanilla extract. Mix these until combined.
- Add half of the cream into this, whisk this in, then add the remaining cream and whisk.
- Now mix in the melted white chocolate. Once combined, mix in 200g of the mango purée.
- Add this into your tin and then add some dollops of the left over purée. Swirl this into the cheesecake.
- Baking the cheesecake:
- To bake the cheesecake, add the tin into a large baking/roasting tray that has high sides. Pour some boiling water into this until it reaches about halfway up the cheesecake tin.
- Carefully place this into your oven and bake at 170c/325f, for around 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes. It is done when the sides look set but the centre is still slightly jiggly.
- Once it has baked, turn your oven off, open the door slightly, and then leave the cheesecake in there for an hour.
- After an hour, take the cheesecake out of the oven. Let this cool down completely, then place it into your fridge. Leave it in there to set overnight.
- The next day take it out of your tin, add some whipped cream on top if you want too, then cut into it and enjoy!
