Creamy Mango Cheesecake

I know I haven't been blogging that much recently, Christmas and new year has been busy with not much time to cook or do anything with my blog really, so if you left comments and I haven't replied I wasn't ignoring you I promise! things are getting back to normal now though and today I had time to do some baking.

I've mentioned before that I get a box of organic fruit and vegetables delivered every two weeks, during the winter when fresh fruit is a bit scarce they often send imported tropical fruit. This week we had two beautiful fresh mangos which I thought would make a great cheesecake. And they did!I chose to make a baked cheesecake rather than no-bake version, mainly because I wanted to cook the fruit within the cake, I served it with a simple sauce made by blending sugar and mango together. The result was a dense rich cheesecake that was perfectly contrasted by the fresh mango and tasted great!

For whatever reason it cracked as it cooled, I think I probably cooled it too fast, next time I'll turn off the oven and leave it there to cool gradually.
Recipe Ingredients

• 175g/6oz digestive biscuits(If you can't get digestives another plain sweet biscuit would work, try shortbread)
  
• 50g/2oz butter , melted
• 600g/21oz cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
  
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 175g/6oz white sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 150ml/1/4 pint Sour cream
• 1 Mango peeled, stoned and diced

Method

• Preheat your oven to 350f/180c/gas4.
• Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin into fine crumbs, mix with the melted butter and press the mixture into the base of a 20cm springform tin. Bake the base for 5 minutes.
• Beat all the remaining ingredients except the mango together with a whisk until smooth.
• Add the diced mango to the cheese mixture and pour over the biscuit base, bake for 40-50 minutes. It should be just slightly wobbly in the centre when it's cooked.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin then serve.
  

Strawberry and Blueberry tart

I don't know about you but I am bored of winter food, and winter in general come to think of it. Last night we were out for a bring and share dinner, and this gave me a good oppurtunity to make something a bit more "summery", I decided to make a pudding. As we had some pastry at home I decided I would make a fruit tart. The filling is a mixture of cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and gelatine (to make sure it set). For the fruit topping I went to Leicester market to see what looked good and found some nice strawberries and blueberries.

So I set to work, first I rolled out the pastry and lined a pastry tart dish, I then blind baked it, left it to cool, spread a thin layer of dark chocolate across the bottom and poured in my filling. When everything had set I decorated it with halved strawberries and blueberries and drizzled it with more chocolate.

As you can see from the picture it looks really good which is exactly what I was aiming for, I wanted something that would stand out and get noticed! The red and blue certainly does that.
This dessert was another success, I seem to have had a string of them lately! it tasted as good as it looks, the addition of a chocolate layer certainly added another dimension that I would add again, as well as helping keep the pastry crisp.

The Recipe

To make your own fruit tart you will need: (Measurements are very rough, I just judged what looked right)

• Shortcrust pastry (I cheated and used ready made, but it would be even better with home made sweet pastry)
  
• 350g Cream cheese


• 1/2 cup icing sugar, (sifted)


• Vanilla extract


• 1 Sachet of gelatine powder


• 60-70g Dark chocolate


• Fruits of your choice

First line you tart dish with pastry, (I used a 10 inch dish) cover with tin foil then baking beans or weights and bake at Gas mark 4 for 15mins after this time remove the foil and beans and bake until golden brown (about 10 mins more. Set aside to cool.

While the pastry cools melt around 50g of the dark chocolate, (this can be done in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, or very carefully in the microwave) spread the chocolate over the base and leave to set, this won't take long at all.

Now make you filling by beating the sifted icing sugar and cream cheese together, add a few drops of vanilla, and pour in the gelatine made up according to packet instructions. Make sure everything is well mixed.
Pour the filling into the pastry case and put it in the fridge to set, this should take about 20mins.

Now prepare your fruit if it needs it wash and chop as you like it and arrange it on top, be creative! finally melt the rest of your chocolate and drizzle ove the top.

Done! Now you can look smug and show off your finished dessert.