Mango Swirl Cheesecake

My love affair with mangoes is best celebrated in this Mango Swirl Cheesecake; a romance that began much before I even set foot in a classroom.  I was really little when my family gave me the summer nickname ‘Aambola‘! Let me explain. ‘Aambo‘ is what a mango is called in Konkani; and the ‘la’ was a suffix picked from my real name and attached to my nickname. Aambo-la, Wino-la; get it? 😛 (Yeah, super embarrassing!)

So, come May every year, as we gobbled up crate after crate of mangoes, my home resounded with the sound of ‘Aambola‘; and chomping, and slurping, of course! 😀 Years down the line I began developing a rash every time I ate mangoes in excess. The rash stung, but I couldn’t resist these sunny beauties.

Last year, I took my love for mangoes up a notch by baking  a stunning Mango Strawberry Tart. This year, I decided to push myself further with this creamy, decadent Mango Swirl Cheesecake! I was inspired by Masterchef Australia judge, Matt Preston’s recipe for the Best Baked Cheesecake that he taught during a Masterclass. So I decided I’d put my own mango twist on it; or should I say mango swirl? 😛

Here’s what you need:

For the Biscuit Base:

• Digestive biscuits – 200 g
• Caster Sugar – 30 g
• Unsalted Butter – 55 g, melted

For the Cheesecake Layer:

• Cream Cheese – 200 g
• Caster Sugar – 1/2 cup
• Eggs – 2
• A squeeze of lemon juice
• Vanilla Extract – 1/2 tsp
• Fresh Cream – 125 ml
• Mango – 1, cubed

For the Mango Swirl:

• Mango – 1, skinned
• Sugar – 1 tbsp

Here’s how you make this really deeeelish Mango Swirl Cheesecake!

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Using a food processor or a regular mixer grinder, blitz the digestive biscuits to a coarse powder. Add in the caster sugar and melted butter, and using your hands, knead the mixture for a minute. Press the biscuit mixture into the base of a springform pan that has been greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake the base for 10 minutes, then take it out and leave it to cool.

Step 2: While the base cools, puree the mango for the mango swirl. Add in the sugar and give it a good blitz. Then pass it through a sieve to make sure none of the stringy, fibrous bits of the mango make their way into the mango swirl. Leave aside.

Step 3: To prepare the cheesecake layer, whip the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in an egg at a time and whip until well incorporated between additions. Pour in the vanilla extract, lemon juice and fresh cream and give it a final mix. Add in the cubed mango.

Step 4: Cover the base and sides of the springform pan with aluminium foil. Then place it in a larger roasting pan filled with about an inch of water (also called a water bath). Pour the cheesecake mixture over the cooled biscuit base. Then, using a spoon, drop blobs of the prepared Mango Swirl onto the surface of the cheesecake mixture. With a skewer, lightly swirl the mango puree around with long cursive movements to give it that swirled effect.

Step 5: Pop the cheesecake into the oven while still in the water bath and bake for an hour. Once the 60 minutes are up, turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it to cool for another hour with the oven door closed.

Step 6: Take the cheesecake out and allow it to cool completely before you refrigerate it. Once chilled, DIG RIGHT IN!

This Mango Swirl Cheesecake is all kinds of amazing! I would go as far as saying that it is the very definition of scrumptious! While I was putting it together, I had my concerns. I was worried the cheesecake wouldn’t set, that the surface would turn brown and the cheesecake would be a disaster. But one bite of the baked and chilled Mango Swirl Cheesecake and all my doubts vanished. It was absolutely lip-smacking!

I like an extra thick biscuit base, because, how can you not love biscuit base? It’s what brings that amazing bite to a cheesecake. And that tangy cheesecake layer, bejeweled with little bits of fresh mango and that sweet mango swirl is just plain fantastic. Trust me, it’ll have you licking every last trace off your spoon!

I’m proud to say that the boyfriend and I devoured this entire cheesecake in a day’s time. Proud because, despite all my concerns, it turned out great. Not proud, because the half cheesecake that I ate is probably busy looking for a nice cozy place for itself on my backside, where it will live until I force myself to work it off! 😛

Was this Mango Swirl Cheesecake worth it? Hell, yeah! 😉 Give this recipe a shot and you’ll know what I’m talking about! 😀

 

Advertisement