Eggless Baked Mango Cheesecake

Cheesecakes are rich, creamy and soft sweet dessert with multiple layers. First layer is packed with crumbled biscuit base. Next layer is made up of main ingredient, fresh cheese. Fresh cheese could be cream cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese etc. Traditionally, fresh cheese is blended with sour cream, sugar, eggs and any fruit pulp or flavouring ingredient. Final layer could be decorating cake with fresh fruits, whipped cream, flavoured pudding, fruit compote etc.

Cheesecakes come in 2 categories - Baked Cheesecake and No bake Cheesecake.

Baked Cheesecakes need low temperature, longer baking time and water-bath. Then the cheesecake sits in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight to set completely.

As the name suggests, No bake cheesecakes needs to be layered and chilled in fridge. Here we will talk more on baked cheesecake.

Mango Pulp

Mangoes are seasonal and hence use them in bakes as much as possible while they are still available. I am a big fan of Alphonso variety of mangoes, since they are more delectable, more pulpy and bright orange in colour, which is perfect for baking. You can use any other variety of mangoes if Alphonso is not available. As said, you might have slight difference in taste, pulp and colour.

Condensed milk

I have used condensed milk instead of sugar. You would need approximately 1 tin of condensed milk which is 400g. I have used Nestle milkmaid. You can use Amul mithai mate if you want.

Cream cheese or Paneer

You can either use store bought cream cheese or you can process the paneer into cream cheese and then use it. I have used cream cheese and paneer in 1:1 ratio. You can completely use cream cheese or Paneer if you want. If using paneer, grind it into a smooth paste.

Thick curd

Traditional cheesecakes use sour cream. We are replacing sour cream with thick curd which adds moisture to the cake and slightly tangy taste.

Digestive biscuits and butter

Any digestive biscuits would work fine. Generally Graham crackers are used to form the base of cheesecake. As said earlier, digestive biscuits like Marie gold would go well with cheesecakes. Crumbled biscuits and melted butter mixture is used to cover just the base of cake tin. You can use it to cover the sides of the tin if you wish to. Just double the quantity if covering the whole cake tin with biscuit base.

Freshly chopped mango

Before you could serve, just top it with chopped mangoes or whipped cream or mango compote.

Substitutes

• Digestive biscuits: Replace it with Parle-g or Graham crackers if available. Marie gold would work fine.

• Cream cheese: If you don't find cream cheese, you can use paneer. Here I have used both.

• Condensed milk: Use 1/2 cup of thick curd and 1 cup of granulated sugar. Whisk together until sugar melts and add instead of condensed milk.

Method

• All the ingredients should be at room temperature. That helps preventing cracks on cheesecake.

• Break the biscuits in hand and add it to a blender. Add melted butter to it and pulse it until you find crumbs of biscuits. When you hold the crumbled biscuits in between your fingers and press, it should hold the shape.

• Wrap the outer area of 7" spring form tin or loose bottomed pan with Aluminium foil to avoid leakage of batter. Greese the tin with a cooking oil spray or oil or with little butter.

• Spread the crumbled biscuits on to the base of tin. Use a bowl or glass to press it down tightly to tin and even out the area. Let it sit in refrigerator for 15-20 min.

• Preheat the oven to 140-150 deg for about 10-15 min.

• If using paneer, add the cubes of paneer to a blender and grind it into smooth paste.

• In a large mixing bowl, add in the cream cheese and paneer paste if using. Add in the thick curd to it. If you don't have thick curd, just remove excessive whey water by straining it in muslin cloth and use. Using a spatula, mix it gently.

• Add in the mango puree to the mixing bowl. To make mango puree, add in the mango chunks to a blender and grind it into a fine paste or puree. Strain the puree if needed based on the type of mangoes used.

• Pour in the condensed milk. If using sugar, melt sugar in thick curd by whisking it lightly and then add it. Add vanilla essence if needed. I have not added.

• Using electric hand mixer at lowest possible speed, whip the mixture until well combined. Make sure there are no lumps and is smooth thick batter, but pourable consistency. Do not over whip the mixture as it will incorporate air into it which will cause the air pockets to expand while baking and result in cracks on the top.

• Pour this cheesecake mixture to spring form tin, even out the top with spatula.

• Take a container larger than spring form tin and add hot water to it. Place the spring form tin inside the container. Water should come upto half of the spring form tin and not less than that.

• The whole idea behind using water bath and low temperature is to prevent cracking on the top of Cheesecake. Hot water moderates the temperature and bakes slowly. Slow baking and slow cooling is the key to prevent cracking.

• Use gloves to place the hot water container with cake tin inside, in oven. This should be baked for about 2 hours. When it is almost 1 and 1/2 hours of baking, there might be browning on the top. If browning is too much, cover the top with Aluminium foil if not you can leave it as is. Every oven is different. So keep an eye after 1hr 30min.

• It's done when the cake shrinks a bit and leave the sides of the pan. Since it needs to be cooled down slowly, switch off the oven and keep it slightly opened for 45min to 1hr.

• Now, take the cake tin out of water bath and place it on a wire rack until it cools down completely. Don't unwrap aluminium foil already. Refrigerate it for 4hrs or overnight before serving.

• Before you could serve, remove the wrapped Aluminium foil and de-mould the cake. Decorate the top of cheesecake with freshly chopped mangoes, whipped cream frosting or fruit compote etc.

Eggless Baked Mango Cheesecake

Recipe:

Serves 8 servings

Prep time: 25 min

Bake time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 25 min

Ingredients:

Digestive biscuits - 80g or 20 Marie biscuits

Melted butter - 4 tbsp

Mango puree - 300g or approx 2 Alphonso mangoes

Condensed milk - 400g or 1 tin of Nestle milkmaid

Cream cheese - 150g

Paneer - 150g or Cream cheese - 150g

Thick curd - 1/2 cup

Topping:

Chopped mangoes - 1/2 cup

Some mint leaves

Steps:

• All the ingredients should be at room temperature. So, thaw the ingredients to room temperature for about an hour or so.

• Wrap the 7" spring form tin or loose bottomed pan with Aluminium foil to avoid leakage. Grease the pan lightly with oil or butter.

• Pulse the biscuits and melted butter for few seconds until it is crumbled nicely. Press the mixture on the base of cake tin tightly with a glass or bowl and pop it in the fridge for 15 min.

• Preheat oven to 150 deg for 10-15 min.

• Add cream cheese to a large mixing bowl, thick Curds. If using paneer, grind paneer into fine smooth paste and add it to bowl. Give it a good mix using spatula.

• Now add in the mango puree, condensed milk. Using a electric hand mixer, whip with lowest possible speed until it is well combined and lumpfree. Do not overwhip it.

• Pour this mixture on biscuit base and level it with spatula. Place the cake tin in large container with hot water in it. Hot water level should be at least half of the cake tin height. Pop it in the oven. It needs to be baked under low temperature slowly and hot water bath helps moderate the temperature so that it bakes slowly.

• After 1hr 40min or so, it starts browning slightly. If there is too much of browning, cover the top with Aluminium foil. It is done when cake shrinks a bit by leaving sides of cake tin. Every oven is different. So keep an eye after 1hr 30min.

• To avoid cracking, it needs to be cooled down slowly. So, once done, switch off oven and keep the oven door slightly open for 45min to 1hr. Later remove the water bath and place cake tin on cooling rack. Do not remove Aluminium wrapping already. Once it is completely cooled down, pop it in the refrigerator for minimum of 4hrs or overnight.

• De-mould the cake before serving. Top the cake with chopped mangoes and fresh mint leaves.