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Mango Pie
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- Total Time
- 50 minutes, plus 5 hours’ chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2½cups (280 grams) finely ground graham-cracker crumbs
- ⅓cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1large pinch sea salt
- 9tablespoons (128 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ¾cup cold water
- ½cup granulated sugar
- 2tablespoons plus ¼ teaspoon powdered gelatin (2½ packages at 2½ teaspoons per pack)
- ½cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
- 4ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 130-ounce can Alphonso mango purée (3¼ cups)
- 1large pinch sea salt
For the Graham-cracker Crust
For the Mango Custard
Preparation
- Step 1
Stir crumbs, sugar, cardamom and salt together in a medium bowl. Add butter, and stir with a fork until evenly combined.
- Step 2
Pour half the crumb mixture into a 9-inch round metal pie pan, and spread evenly. Press down with fingers, a metal measuring cup or a second pie pan to compact the crumbs as much as possible across the bottom and up the sides of the pan into an even crust. (The more compressed the crust, the less it will crumble.) Repeat to form the remaining crumb mixture into a crust in a second pan.
- Step 3
Heat oven to 325. Transfer both crusts to freezer, and chill for 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Step 4
Place ¾ cup cold water in a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together ¼ cup sugar with the gelatin; sprinkle mixture evenly over the surface of the cold water. Let sit a few minutes to bloom.
- Step 5
In the meantime, whip the cream and remaining ¼ cup sugar together until medium-stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- Step 6
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm 1 cup of the mango purée to body temperature (stir to make sure you are just warming it and not bringing it to a boil). Pour warmed mango purée over gelatin mixture, and whisk until well combined. Gelatin should dissolve into mango completely. Gradually whisk in remaining mango purée.
- Step 7
Use a rubber spatula to beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl until it is soft and smooth, then add to mango mixture along with a large pinch of sea salt. Use an immersion blender to blend until completely smooth, tipping the bowl to make sure you’ve incorporated everything well. Gently tap the bowl on the counter once or twice to pop any air bubbles. Use the spatula to gently fold about ¼ of the mango mixture into the whipped cream, then fold cream into the larger amount of mixture until no streaks remain.
- Step 8
Divide custard between cooled crusts. Use a rubber spatula to smooth out the filling. Refrigerate 5 hours or overnight until firm and chilled. Serve chilled.
- You can find Alphonso mango purée — which is a variety, not a brand — at most Indian grocery stores. If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a food processor or a countertop blender to blend the custard mixture.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Instead of 3/4 cup water, I squeezed the juice of one healthy lime into the measuring cup, then added water to make 3/4 cup. The acidity makes the mango flavor pop.
I live in the tropics, and have access to an abundance of mangoes. I would prefer to use fresh mango rather than canned. Is there any reason not to do this? Perhaps some enzymatic reaction? For instance, I know canned pineapple is required when using gelatin, rather than fresh, due to an enzyme.
I live in Thailand and made this with local freshly blended mangoes as they are at peak quality and low price right now. I also made just one pie with 1/2 the ingredients. Did not need to adjust the gelatin or sugar on the recipe due to using fresh fruit. Came out perfect. Like a mango version of key lime pie.
For vegans/vegetarians: I used 4 tsp of agar powder instead of gelatin, boiled with 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar, and simmered for a few minutes before whisking in the mango puree. It set up really well. To further vegan-ize, I used a combination of coconut cream and CocoWhip, plus Kite Hill cream cheese, which all worked great.
I've made this pie twice now and have had no issues with setting even when I've halved the recipe. I was a little intimidated to make this pie because many of the commenters were frustrated with the number of bowls used. I have a standing mixer, so I used that to beat the heavy cream, put that aside in a small bowl, used the standing mixer again to beat the cream cheese, then added the mango puree to the cream cheese and after that was mixed put the whipped cream back in. I found this easiest.
Native of Hawaii here. When I was growing up everybody had a mango tree in the backyard. My mother made a mango pie like an apple pie - filled a two crust pie with slices of mango, some sugar, a little cinnamon. If you love mangos, you might want to try it.
Oh my goodness! This past Thanksgiving I made the Philadelphia cream cheese recipe for a no bake pumpkin cheese cake (cream cheese, cool whip, pumpkin, sugar, graham cracker crust). My mom saw it and said, for the first time ever, "Can you text me that recipe and I'll figure out how to replace the pumpkin with mango". ALL AUNTIES ARE QUEENS!
Try to use frozen Alphonso purée rather than the canned variety (both available at Indian stores). The canned purée sometimes has a metallic after taste. Also - fresh mango purée can be used without any problem. Fresh Alphonso mangoes are available at many Indian stores in the US in May and June.
The dimensions for the gelatin are incorrect, at least for Knox Gelatine. 2 and 1/2 packets of Knox gelatine are not even close to 2 tablespoons + 1/4 teaspoon. Which amount is correct?
What is labeled Alphonso Mango Pulp is puree. No need to hunt for cans labeled purée, which is hard, if not impossible, to find.
The Alphonso mango puree comes in 30 oz. cans. No reason you can't halve the recipe, you'll just have mango puree left over. Another option would be to make squares in a 9x13" pan rather than 2 small pies. A dollop of cardamom whipped cream on each slice is delicious.
This did not work for me. The custard didn't really set and was grainy. Also, the way the recipe was written necessitated many bowls and whisks and spatulas--many more than I'd normally expect to use for a simple dessert. Should have been pared down or thought through. Finally, why on earth is it written to produce two pies? Why not write a recipe for one and suggest it could be doubled?
I had absolutely no problem making this. I couldn't find mango puree so I pureed some frozen mangoes- they could have used added sugar. I also cheated and used pre-made crust. I was able to get the gelatin dissolved by heating up the mango puree to the point where it was hot to the touch, but did not burn me. It was really tasty and I'm looking forward to making it again and using a little more sugar in the puree.
Agar agar is a seaweed derived thickener similar to gelatin but more powerful. Use much less agar powder than you would gelatin. 1 tspn agar = 8 teaspoons gelatin.
Can the second pie be frozen?
I loved this recipe, but also had a hard time finding canned Mango purée as I live in a rural area. The grocery store had very ripe mangos however and I was able to make my own purée which still tasted sweet and delicious. I bought six (recommend 6-7) very ripe mangoes (think banana bread type of bananas, likely you wouldn’t buy them to eat fresh) put my blender on the kitchen scale and peeled every last drop to make 30 oz and blended. Yum!
This is a wonderful recipe that I have made many times with great success using pre made pie crust ( per Hrishikesh) and homemade pie crust ( per Samit). I tend to add a bit more cardamon but otherwise it is perfect. Thank you both for this recipe!
Didn’t quite set perfectly but I think it was due to gelatine-user-error. Or maybe gelatine expires? Really make sure your gelatine is fully dissolved! Anyways, we took the second pie and froze it and it’s a delicious frozen treat! And yeah… it was a lot of bowls!
I used ginger snaps instead of graham crackers for the crust which was a delicious flavor combo. I also could only find canned Kesar mango, and it worked great. If I ever find canned Alphonso mango, I’ll have to make it again to compare.
Double the cardamom Don't bother pre-beating cream cheese. Just put into food processor with mango. Do strain the mango. Use entire recipe in 1-9" pie pan.
Made half of this recipe (1 pie) today with fairly ripe fresh mangoes. I would second whoever added the lime juice suggestion - I only had a few drops of lime juice leftover from a different recipe, and it could easily have used more. It has a very mild flavor. I don't know if using a different type of mango would help.
Cooked exactly according to the recipe and found it thoroughly average. Agree with the top review that lime makes it better. I topped with zest because I wasn’t clever enough to use lime juice as she recommended. Needs more mango zing and a bit of brightness, either from more acid or even a little heat. Won’t make again and wouldn’t recommend.
8 graham cracker squares and about 12 Midel ginger Snaps for crust (1 1/4 c crumbs) for crust
Planning to include in Thanksgiving this year- thoughts on making ahead Tuesday or Wednesday night?
Made filling as written, using 2-1/2 packets (2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon) but, as experienced by a few others, it didn't set overnight. I assumed it may have something to with temperature, so preheated the oven to 350F and popped the pies from the fridge to the oven. After 15 minutes, the filling reached 70C which I figured might be high enough to do the trick. Cooled overnight; perfect texture by morning - custard-like with clean cut edges, definitely not jelly! Delicious!
Was very unimpressed with this. I used the Alphonso purée which had great flavor straight out of the can, but lost its magic when turned into the pie. The flavor was dulled and the consistency way too firm - like Knox blox. I won’t make it again, but if I did, I’d add the juice of a lime to the water to make up 3/4 cup and I’d reduce the quantity of gelatin to achieve a creamier consistency.
Could this be 1.5’ed or doubled and put in a long dish for a crowd? I don’t think 1 pie is enough.
I’m not a fan of graham crackers so made this with a coconut crust. Yum!
This recipe is time consuming, uses tons of bowls, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This tastes just like my grandmother’s mango pie!
Also keep mangoat 1 cup
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