I’ve been missing for some days, haven’t I?? Blame it on the endless weddings happening around me!! There are about 2-3 weddings every week, and they all insist the guests participate in all the functions – so do the math and calculate the number of biryani I’ll end up eating!! It’s playing havoc with my healthy diet, although I do restrict the number of invites I attend J.
Coming to this month’s Baking Partner’s Challenge – it’s something I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time – Cheesecake without cream cheese! Where I live, it’s extremely rare to find cream cheese on supermarket shelves, and even if it’s available, the price is a putoff. So this recipe’s paneer-hung curd combo has worked like a dream!!
The original recipe is from Divine Taste, and I’ve followed it to the T. I don’t have much experience with cheesecake, so I didn’t dare experiment much J.
What you’ll need:
For the Crust:
160 g digestive biscuits crushed (I used Britannia)
100 g salted butter, softened and cut into cubes
For the Cheesecake Filling:
160 g powdered sugar
800 g thick yogurt (I used Milky Mist)
400 g Paneer (I used Milky Mist)
375 ml water
15 g China Grass (I used Bakers)
1 cup of mango puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Mango Glaze:
½ cup mango puree
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
What you’re going to do:
Overnight Prep:
Place the yogurt in a muslin cloth placed in a colander, over a bowl and let it drain overnight. By morning, you should get about 400 g of thick, creamy hung curd.
Note: I used low fat curd (mistake), and so I ended up with about 300 g of hung curd. I went ahead anyway without any major disasters J.
For the Crust:
1. Break the biscuits into pieces and grind them to a powder. Drop in the butter and process again till well combined.
2. Remove the mixture and press it evenly into the base of an 8” deep round springform pan. Chill in the fridge for half an hour.
For the Cheesecake Filling:
1. Break the china grass into small pieces and soak in 375 ml water for about 10 minutes till soft.
2. Squeeze the paneer to get rid of all the excess water. In a blender jar, process the paneer and hung curd till smooth and creamy. Transfer this mix to a large bowl.
3. In a saucepan, heat the mango puree over a medium flame, without letting it boil.
4. In another saucepan, place the softened china grass-water mix and stir on low heat till completely melted, for about 5-6 minutes. Do not let it boil.
5. Pour this hot melted china grass solution into the hot mango puree, stirring continuously. Both mixtures need to be very hot. Slowly add this mango mix into the yogurt-cheese mixture.
6. Stir in the sugar and vanilla, and whisk well till completely blended.
7. Pour this mixture over the prepared crust, level with a spoon and chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or till firm.
For the Mango Glaze:
1. Place all the ingredients for the glaze in a saucepan and cook over medium heat.
2. When it begins to boil, reduce the flame and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more. Allow to come to room temperature.
3. Spread the glaze over the cheesecake with a spoon. Allow the glaze to set over the cheesecake for 2 to 3 hours or more.
4. Carefully take the cake out of the spring form pan and slice and serve.
All done!! I admit, it does require a bit of prep work – hanging the curd, peeling, chopping and pureeing mangoes. Also, pureeing the paneer and curd took some time for me, as also melting the china grass. But the best part is that this is a great dessert for a party, which can also be made ahead!! Even though I was 100 g short of hung curd, my cheesecake turned out quite soft and delish, although I found the glaze a little too tart for my taste. Maybe next time, I’ll skip the lime juice.
My cheesecake set perfectly well, but the glaze dripped a little on slicing. Not that I’m complaining much J.
This is a perfect dessert for this season, when mangoes are abundant. You may use more sugar if you’d like, but I had perfectly sweet mangoes to begin with, so didn’t need more. This recipe gives you a pretty big cake, so I shared with our neighbors and extended family. Everyone loved it, though my brother wasn’t a big fan of the glaze, like me J. Now that I’ve found a way to replace the cream cheese, a thousand opportunities have just opened up!! Check out other bloggers’ cheesecake versions here!
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