recipes:cheesecake

This weekend I managed to get in some time in the kitchen. While visiting my parents I used Mum's mixmaster to revisit the mango cheesecake recipe from a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the original recipe - a blurry photo - sorry.

Base
1 1/3 cup of crushed biscuit (cookie) crumbs
80g butter, melted
Combine biscuit crumbs and butter and press into the base of buttered and lined 22cm springform pan.

Filling
2 x 250g cream cheese (this was out of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe book so three guesses what they recommend) softened at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of grated orange rind
1 tablespoon of gelatine dissolved in 1/4 cup of water, cooled
2 large mangoes, chopped
1 cup cream, lightly whipped.
Beat cream cheese until smooth, add sugar, juice, rind and gelatine mixture, beat well until combined. Fold in 3/4 of the mango, and the cream. Pour over prepared base.
Puree remaining chopped mango and drizzle over the cheesecake. Using the tip of a knife gently swirl into the top of the cheesecake. Refrigerate until set.

The first time I pretty much followed the recipe. I had to use tinned mango because the season had just ended and I couldn't find them anywhere, and I didn't bother pureeing the leftovers to drizzle on top - instead I sprinkled some extra grated orange rind over the whole thing.

The second time....
I used grated lemon rind instead of the orange. I found the orange overpowering and prefer lemon-y cheesecake to orange rind-y cheesecake.
I used tinned peaches instead of tinned mango. Tinned mango is nothing like the real thing (at least this brand wasn't) so instead of being disappointed for a second time I used an alternative (as suggested at the bottom of the recipe).
I used Philadelphia Cream for Cooking instead of lightly whipped normal cream.
I put nothing on top - although I did buy tinned passionfruit with the intention using this.

Much happier with the second one. Tastes more like what I've been dreaming about. And fortunately, with no mixmaster and no hand mixer (only a stick blender with a food processor attachment) this is something that I have to wait to make in someone else's kitchen. Much safer!

No doubt the piece of this I had for dessert would have negated every single step of the 2.5km I walked this afternoon. Worth it!

day twenty-one : make cheesecake