A soft creamy no bake cheesecake: Mango cheesecake with an almond-honey crust...


 I promised you another cheesecake and here I am. The mango cheesecake the husband loves. The sondesh base one is my favorite but this creamy, melting type cheesecake with any fresh fruits is the one Arvind likes more.

Not that I don't like it, It's just that this one takes a day's preparation ahead if I am using homemade hung curd. And some grinding and mixing, whipping etc. You can understand it takes a little more planning and time so I am the one who keeps delaying it till I get the urge to take out my Tart pans. Springform pans are yet to enter my kitchen.

This one I make with a no flour, gluten free crust. Mildly sweetened with honey that gets nicely nutty and sticky when you spoon the cheesecake. Nutty, sticky, gooey and fruity. All things good.

Be ready for a lot of pictures, I took time to make this dessert in phases and clicked pictures. Only the finished product has not been clicked satisfactorily owing to the sin that this cheesecake is. I usually click my pictures of the finished/cooked food when it's time to serve, so the gaze of two hungry souls will be very much visible in the pictures.

You would agree when you see this.... :-)


You would love this cheesecake for it's intense taste and the three layers of sweetness. The mango flavor is not diluted by unnecessary additives to make it firm as a top layer that cuts with sharp edges. This cheesecake makes a wobbly mango layer that flips and spills on the sides when you cut the wedges.

The cheese layer is very creamy and uses homely ingredients we all have. My readers request me to use ingredients that are not hard to find in Indian cities and smaller towns. So you just need to have some plain fresh yogurt (dahi) and homemade malai (clotted cream from full fat milk).

The crust layer is a little sticky due to honey and you might find it a little tricky to dislodge the wedges from the base if using a tart pan like me. If you layer the cheesecake into mugs or stemmed glasses, there will be no such hassle of a sloppy wedge of cheesecake.

Ingredients...
(six large servings)
hung curd 3/4 cup (fresh full fat curds placed into a sieve lined with muslin and the sieve placed over a bowl. The whole set up refrigerated overnight, the remaining creamy solid curds in the muslin will be used)
malai (homemade clotted cream)1/2 cup
(use heavy whipping cream if available)
mango puree 1 cup
sugar and green cardamom mixed and powdered like here  to taste, 1 tbsp sugar is good enough
or a pinch of green cardamom powder and a tbsp of castor sugar, check sweetness to your taste
corn flour 1 tbsp
almond powder 3/4 cup or more if you want a thicker base ( I powdered it fresh in my mixie)
honey 2-3 tbsp or just to bind the almond flour
tart pan of 6" diameter (1.5 inch height)


procedure...

Mix the hung curd and malai together and whip till soft peaks form. Add the sugar and cardamom mix and whip again till well blended. (see top right in the picture).

Mix the cornflour with the mango puree and cook till it bubbles softly. You can use a pan to do this , I did it in my microwave. Took just 3 minutes. No need to add sugar in it if your mangoes are sweet enough for your liking. (the measuring cup in the middle of the picture). Place this mango mixture into the fridge so it gets chilled till you work on other things. If poured warm over the cheesecake it would melt the fats and distort the shape.

Powder the almonds in your trusted food processor, empty the powder in a bowl and pour honey over it (the bottom right in the picture).

Mix the honey and almond powder well so it becomes like a dough.


Now empty the almond-honey paste in the Tart pan and flatten it using your fingers. You might find the dough sticky but keep doing it till it spreads into a uniform layer. Push the almond paste nicely to the edges so it gets shaped like the scalloped edge of the pan.


 Empty the malai and hung curd mix over the almond layer...


And smoothen it in the pan evenly....


You can refrigerate this pan if the mango puree is not chilled until now. So both the ingredients are chilled before they are layered.

Once chilled, pour the mango puree over this cream cheese layer and smoothen the surface. This recipe fills the 6" pan to the brim.

Cover with foil and refrigerate till set and chilled to serve.

To take the cheesecake out of the pan. place your palm below the base and push it above the rim. Then place it over a flat plate.

Cut wedges and serve immediately.


We do not finish this cheesecake in one go ever. The leftover stays well in the fridge for a couple of days. So refrigerate it back after placing it back into the tart pan and covering with foil.

The almond-honey base kinda sticks to the bottom, but a little prodding with the triangular cheesecake spatula or a wide knife easily does the needful.


The texture is melt in the mouth. No bland layer of cream cheese as I have witnessed in commercially made cheesecakes. The commercial ones that I have tasted till date make me want to assemble some cheesecake at home always.


Such scrummy wedge of a cheesecake that has been made with minimal sugar is a great way to enjoy a dessert when you are on a low GI regime. Keeping the portion size smaller would definitely help. Also if you do not want it overly sweetened. And this indulgence would definitely not be frequent.

This recipe makes very delicately sweetened cheesecake but the sweetness is more enjoyable because of three layers of sweetness to it. A honey base goes so well with the complex sweetness of mangoes and a mild cardamom laced sweetness of the creamy middle layer. All three layers have a different kind of sweetness and a complex medley of flavors.



Makes sense for a sated palette after a dessert as the complex sweetness makes even a smaller serving quite enjoyable.

When are you trying this one?

Comments

  1. love this recipe. never tried making malai at home. what is the procedure? please let me know.

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    1. Thanks Sayantani. I shall make a post about malai and home made cream with different fat percentage.

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  2. Wow! Have bookmarked it. What other fruits can be used instead of mangoes? Because by the time i get around to make this it wont be mango season anymore..

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    1. All berries, even freshly sliced strawberries would do. Think fresh Kiwi :-)

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  3. Hey Sangeeta, loved the way you have put across the recipe...good that it has too many pictures for us to understand it in a better manner..looks so easy only if I minus the efforts put in before actually making it look so simple.. need to try this out...my mil will definately like the idea of malai in any dessert :) Bookmarked to try ASAP before the dear mangoes bid us goodbye for the season!

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    1. Yes. Malai makes so much sense in Indian homes :-)

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  4. this is such a easy way of making cheesecake. i always run away from making cheesecakes. the perfect cheesecakes textures that i see on food blogs makes it too intimidating for me to try at home.

    you have made it so easy and presented it also well that it is easy for right brained people like me to understand.

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    1. Thanks Dassana. Glad you found it doable :-)

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  5. Love the way you did this. Perfect for this season Sangeeta, and I love that you used honey in the base. WOW!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Thank you so much Deeba. I am humbled to get a complement from the ace baker herself... :-)

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  6. Very fine recipe Sangeeta.. I love the way you have described it, actually made it simpler. I am going to try this very soon.. on top of my list now !!

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    1. Thanks. Would like to know how you liked it Nupur :-)

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