When hearing this succulent dessert, most of them move to a new york café, but the origin of the cheesecake, the cheesecake as we know it now, is the result of many modifications over thousands of years, it is believed that its birth dates back to 4000 years before the current era, back in ancient Greece, specifically on the island of Samos, in ancient Greece this dessert was considered an authentic source of energy, was the food of the first athletes of the Olympic Games when these began in 776 BC, although it was not until 230 AD when the writer Athenaeus was credited with the first written recipe for the cheesecake, in those days the crushed cheese was simply heated in a copper saucepan with honey and flour to later let it cool and serve.
When Greece was conquered by the Romans, the cheesecake became a war riot, they modified the recipe including egg and baking it among hot bricks, renamed it Libuma and it was a cake that was only served on very rare occasions. special
This is the origin of the cheese cake but how does it get to America? This recipe was brought by the first European settlers, in 1872 when a cheese maker in New York was working on producing a French cheese among so many tests by chance he got a soft and creamy cheese, years later this same manufacturer began distributing this cheese wrapped in aluminum foil and distributed it in local stores with the name of Philadelphia Cream, in 1928 the kraft cheese company bought this small factory, and even distribute this cheese known to all, although in my country Venezuela has long since disappeared due to the crisis I know that many of us loved to eat it.
Not only does New York in its cafeterias have its famous cheesecake, the rest of the world also, in Italy with mascarpone cheese, ricotta and honey, the Greeks use feta or Mizithra, the Germans add cottage cheese and do not make the base with cookies, but with freshly prepared dough. Places like Poland have their own version called sernik or with different ingredients like in Japan where they combine egg whites and corn starch, and there are even versions around the world with blue cheeses, hot peppers, seafood and tofu among other ingredients.
The truth is that after four thousand years of life few are those who do not surrender yet to a delicious portion of cheesecake or cheesecake.
I will share with you a recipe for a cheesecake with mango and lemon that I thought was an excellent combination of flavors between cheese, mango and lemon.
Ingredients:
For the base:
- 1 Pack of Mary Cookies or similar (200 grams)
- 50 grams of butter.
For the filling:
- 2 handle
- 1 lemon
- 900 grams of cream cheese.
- 200 grams of sugar (1 cup)
- 4 eggs
For coverage:
- 1 handle
- 50 milliliters of water.
- 8 grams of gelatin without flavor powder.
- 1 Tablespoon of sugar (optional)
Preparation:
We crush the cookies and mix them with the melted butter to start preparing the base of the mango and lemon cheesecake, then we extend the preparation occupying the bottom of a round mold of about 25 cm in diameter and bake at 180ºC for 8 minutes, meanwhile, peel the mangoes, remove the bones and crush them, squeeze the lemon and grate the skin, since we will use both the juice and the zest, then beat the cream cheese with the sugar, add the lemon juice and the zest and , finally, the eggs to continue with the filling of the mango and lemon cheesecake, add the mango puree and integrate with a spatula or spoon making enveloping movements so that the dough does not lose volume, if you want, you can add some pieces of mango and mix.
Pour the mango and lemon filling over the cookie base and bake the cheesecake for one hour at 180ºC, or until done, since the final time will depend on the type of oven, when the mango and lemon cheesecake is ready, we remove it from the oven and let it warm while we prepare the gelatin that we will use as a cover. To do this, peel the mango and grind it with water, then heat it over low heat to dissolve the gelatin and sugar, in case you want to add this last ingredient.
- Trick: You can replace the gelatin powder by three sheets of unflavored gelatin or agar agar.
Let the gelatin cool a little and place it on the cheesecake, covering the entire surface. We reserve in the refrigerator until the coverage has set, once ready decorate to our liking or we can eat it like this and enjoy this delicious dessert.