Mango Cream Pie

(this pie needs to be chilled well as it melts at room temperature.)

Mango cream tart

My mother just could not resist leaving Conti’s without buying a cake. I got her to grab the mango cream tart as we’ve never tried their version before. We have always been crazy for anything mango. In fact, during the height of Red Ribbon’s 80s success, we would always buy their mango cake, mango cream pie and mango tart.

In case you’re wondering, we did not pick the Mango Bravo (although I had to convince my mom from doing so), because I have serious issue against this thing. No, I don’t have allergies to it. But I think it does not have any right calling itself a “cake.” It is merely a toasted ground-nut meringue, iced with cream and decorated with mangoes. And oh, they put chocolate syrup on top! Sacrilege!!!

To my disappointment, their mango cream tart was just, well, mango cream in a tart shell! I was expecting something more elaborate – just like the ones at Red Ribbon. (I don’t know if they still have it.) The ones at Red Ribbon had a shortbread crust, a layer of pastry cream, I think it also had a bit of whipped cream, then a layer of mangoes, and lastly a layer of gelatin.

Today, we had some over-ripe mangoes and someone had to intervene! I did not have much time, so I made my mango cream tart in the fashion of Conti’s, but of course, mine tasted better and less commercial.

Shortbread Crust
Preheat oven 350°F.

In a bowl, mix together 2 cups flour with ½ cup confectioner’s sugar and a pinch of salt. Add in ¾ cup melted butter. Mix until mixture comes together. We are not making a traditional pastry crust here so we don’t have to worry about cutting the butter – that is why we add it in melted. This is not a flaky crust.

Press on a tart pan (8 or 9-inch round pan) and bake for 20 - 30 minutes until edges begin to brown, and surface is lightly browned. Cool on pan.

For the mango cream tart, you need to

Filling
Make some pastry cream: on a saucepan on medium heat, scald 2 cups milk (you can use half and half, or even all-cream). Add sugar (usually ½ cup or more, depending on how sweet you like it), and also around two tablespoons of powdered gelatin. Be sure to mix the gelatin with the sugar before adding them, or the gelatin will clump together.

Meanwhile on a bowl, beat together three yolks and one whole egg. When milk is about to boil, pour the milk over to the eggs while whisking to prevent them from coagulating. Pour this mixture back into the pan. Now switch gears to a wooden spoon and mix constantly until this mixture thickens to coat the back of a spoon. When thick, remove from pan and pour onto a bowl. Stir in ¼ cup of cold butter. This will help cool the mixture. Continue stirring until combined. You may also add in one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Cool completely.

When custard is cool/ room temperature, whip one cup of very cold cream until fluffy and doubled in volume. Fold in the custard. The gelatin in the custard will “gel” the whole mixture together.

Pour this mixture on to the chilled crust. Chill. When completely set and firm, decorate top with some sliced mangoes.

(press the crust on a pie plate and bake until golden and cooked through.)

(when shell is completely cooled, pour in the filling and decorate with sliced ripe mangoes. Chill until set before slicing.)

Peach Custard 'Cake'

(it is actually a fruit and custard set on a crumbly shortbread crust.)

I found this recipe on my aunt’s cooking “diary” scribbled over on a browned paper stained with egg whites, flour and butter. So there’s indication the opened this page quite often! The recipe is probably older than I am since the manufacture date of the diary says “1980.”

This recipe is actually a fruit custard set on a shortbread crust. It is not in any way a fluffy cake whatsoever. Blame the 80s for the misleading title.

Funky as the name may be, I have always loved this treat since childhood. I learned to make this since I was eleven.

Mango and Peach Custard Tart

Shortbread Crust
Preheat oven 350°F.

Mix together 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ cup softened or melted butter. Just mix them together with a pastry blender, or with your bare hands just until it comes together. This is not a flaky crust, so you do not have to worry about cutting the butter into pieces into the flour. This is the reason why the butter is melted or softened.

Press crust on the bottom and about an inch up the sides of an eight-inch baking pan. Bake for around 10-15 minutes.

Cool on pan.

Filling
The recipe calls for a pound of canned peaches. You can use fresh if you like. But they might be too sour. I usually use fresh mango slices laid down alternating with sliced canned peaches. Use whatever soft fruit you like. But canned peaches and fresh ripe mangoes work best for me.

Arrange fruit slices on partially cooked crust. Sprinkle fruit with a mixture of ½ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. (Again, adjust sugar to your taste. Skip the cinnamon if you wish.)

Mix together 1 cup cream, ½ cup peach syrup from can (or you can use milk, mango juice, peach juice, etc.), 1 egg and one yolk. Pour over fruit arranged on crust.

Bake on a 325°F oven for 30 minutes. Top surface with look dry and sometimes may “crack.” Center will still be soft if pan is jiggled, but will set as the custard continues to cook with some residual heat during cooling.

Cool completely on rack, then chill.

Serve chilled so that custard will be fully set.


(canned peaches and sliced ripe mangoes work best for me. arrange the slices neatly on the cooked crust.)

(smooth over the custard before baking. I know the recipe says an 8x8 inch pan, but I did not have that today, so I just used an equivalent-sized rectangular pan.)

(when done, surface may look dry and cracked. if there are spots that turn brown, that's okay. but if the custard boils over, turn the heat down. you need gentle heat to cook the custard.)

Summer Fruit Pie

Mango and Apple Pie

(the combination of mangoes and apples with cinnamon complement each other)

Everyone in my family loves apple pie, especially American apple pie. American apple pie is a pie with a soft-flaky crust filled with a sweet cinnamon apple filling. It is really nice, but I find it a bit too overpowering, especially the sweetness combined with the strong cinnamon flavor.

In the past, I have made several variations to this common pie – I substituted caramel for the cinnamon-sugar; topped the pie with an oatmeal-crumb topping; and mixed in various fruits with the apples. The latter is this pie – a combination of apples and mangoes.

Pastry
I have used only one pastry recipe for everything – from sweet fruit pies to savory meat pastries. I got this from “Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking.” My grandmother’s copy was printed in 1974 (long before I was born) and has been out of print for decades.

I use the proportions for a two-crust 9-inch pie.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter or ¾ cup vegetable shortening
Ice water (around ½ cup)

Mix the flour and salt on a bowl. Drop in cut up pieces of shortening or butter. Cut the shortening into the flour until you end up with some pea-sized pieces of butter coated with flour. It doesn’t have to be uniform. Overmixing may result in a tough and non-flaky dough. Add enough ice water until mixture comes together in a ball. Perhaps two tablespoons at a time. Do NOT knead! Flatten dough and chill, wrapped in plastic.

Cut pastry in half. Roll on a lightly floured surface then slide on to a 9 inch pie plate. Fill. Roll the remaining half and cover the pie. Flute edges.

Filling
I like my pie with a tall dome - before and after baking. The key is to stuff it with enough fruit, then leave it in the oven just until the fruit has become soft, not turned into mush! I usually use six apples for a nine-inch American apple pie.

Granny smith is the best apple for pies – it is tart and firm. It holds its shape even after baking. The red table apples tend to turn into applesauce even if cut into large chunks. They simply melt away in the heat! But you can certainly mix equal amounts of the two to cut on the tartness, change the texture and add more flavor to the pie.

For this pie, use three medium sized granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into one inch chunks. Cutting them into thin slices tends to turn them into applesauce after an hour of baking. You can even substitute a pear in lieu of an apple.

I also used two to three ripe Philippine mangoes, cut into chunks larger than the apples so they will hold their shape after baking. If you live outside the Philippines and cannot find Philippine mangoes, use ripe or canned yellow peaches instead. The flavor is much closer to Philippine mangoes.

Toss the fruits in a large bowl. Add the zest of one lemon. Add the juice of the lemon as well. Taste the fruits. It should be tart. Add more lemon to adjust the sourness.

In a small bowl, mix one cup sugar with three tablespoons cornstarch and one teaspoon cinnamon. Add ¼ teaspoon each of nutmeg and cardamom. The latter two spices complement the cinnamon. They also cut its sharpness.

Sprinkle the bottom of the pie crust with one tablespoon of the sugar mixture. Scatter some pieces of butter (around one tablespoon). Cover with fruit. Repeat the process using up all the fruit and ending with the sugar mixture. Cover with the remaining crust. (or with crumb topping). Leave slits in top of the pie if using the pastry crust.

(repeat the layers of fruit, cinnamon sugar and butter, starting and ending with the sugar and butter)

Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes until top is lightly browned. Reduce temperature to 300° and bake for another 45 minutes. To test for doneness, poke the center of the pie through the pastry slit with a toothpick. If you can sink it all the way to the bottom with slight resistance, then pie is done. It will still cook outside of the oven with some residual heat. If filling is already soft and done while still inside the oven, then it will turn into a mush when it cools.


(you can test for doneness by inserting toothpicks through the slits and poke the fruit pieces for desired tenderness - but remember that residual heat will continue to cook the fruit pieces)

Cool completely on rack, then serve.