Mango-Topped Cheesecake

Cheesecake has been my fave since I was a kid. We got to choose our birthday cake every year, and after I discovered cheesecake, there was no going back to regular cake. Loving it so much has lead to the search for a truly good recipe. That search ends below.

You can use this recipe for cheesecake by itself for classic version. You can also make lemon curd to top it with instead of mango.

New York’s finest Cheesecake
Adapted from Family Circle

3 – 8 oz. cream cheese (you can sub Neufchatel to save on fat, but it costs in mouth feel)
1 ¼ c. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 t. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a crust of your choosing. Beat room-temperature cheese and sugar at medium, scraping a few times, until well blended. Beat in other ingredients. Pour into springform pan or pie plate. Bake 50 min. or until puffed and golden. Transfer to rack and cool. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day:

Mango Curd
Adapted from Aloha World .com

¾ c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. pureed mango
¼ c. butter
2 T. lemon juice
6 egg yolks, beaten

whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a sauce pan. Add mango, lemon, and butter. Whisk together and heat on medium. Stir constantly and heat until thickened. Slowly stir about ½ of the hot mix into the egg yolks, whisking like there’s no tomorrow. Then immediately add it all back into the pan, whisking like crazy to evenly mix the yolks in before it goes horribly wrong (just kidding). It should boil quickly. Keep whisking and turn heat down, about 2 minutes. Transfer to top of chilled cheesecake, cover and refrigerate. If there is extra, put in a covered container and refrigerate. The extra can be used like lemon curd.

OMG, it doesn’t get better than this!