Mango Cream Cheese Crostata

(UPDATED RECIPE AND PIC MARCH 15, 2019: one of the most popular on the blog, and now even more delicious!)

Today I’m making a crostata.  It is the perfect lazy treat after returning back home from our trip.  It is one of the most utterly foolproof sweet treats you will ever make.  Just make a pie or tart dough, roll it flat out, fill it with fruits, chocolate, nuts or whatever combination you may think for a pie, then fold the edges and bake; that simple!

Now, if you are thinking about it, yes, a crostata and a galette are pretty much the same.  Crostata is the Italian name and galette is the French term for small rustic cake with a dough base, so there you go…

Even though you can just mix some fruits with sugar for the filling, I like to spread some sweetened cheese at the bottom to add some creamy texture and a nice tangy note between the sweetness of the fruit and the buttery taste of the dough.

This is truly as easy as pie.  Hope you enjoy this one friends!

Mango Cream Cheese Crostata

Ingredients

Crust

◯ 1 disk of this flaky pie crust recipe

Mango cream cheese filling

◯ Firm mangoes, sliced – 2
◯ Raw sugar – ¼ cup for mangos + ¼ cup for cream cheese + 1 TBSP for sprinkling on top
◯ Maple syrup (optional) - 1 TBSP
◯ Cream cheese, at room temperature – 8 oz
◯ 1 egg, a bit of milk of choice and and a few drops of vegetable oil of choice

Details

Total time:
2.5 hours, including chill time for the dough

Prep time:
30 minutes

Equipment:
food processor, baking sheet, rolling pin, parchment paper, electric mixer

Steps

(This recipe is super easy and pretty quick. The steps seem long because I included lots of details for when you are working with the dough, which sometimes could be tricky.)

Preheat oven to 400°. Place rack on top of the lower third of the oven, second tier form the bottom up.

Take out the disk of dough so it soften a little bit before stretching it out. You just want it maleable enough.

Place 1/4 cup of the sugar in a medium bowl

Using a stand up mixer or electric hand mixer beat the cream cheese with ¼ cup of sugar and the maple syrup, if using, about 4 to 5 minutes, until the sugar is completely integrated throughout the cheese and the mixture looks light and soft. Set aside.

Dust with flour a clean flat surface as well as your rolling pins and hands. Place a parchment paper on the surface and dust more flour over it. Place you dough disk on the paper and stretch it from the center out until you have a circle of approximately 12” of circumference and the dough is about 1/8” thick. Remember to rotate the disk during the first stretches to prevent it form sticking to the surface. You may dust a bit more of flour beneath the dough if you feel it is sticking down. Stop rotating when the disk is larger and it wrinkles if you try to pull it up. Carefully prick the dough with a fork, making sure you don’t pierce it through. If that happens, just pinch a small dot of dough and press it on the spot to seal it.

Spread the cream cheese over the dough, leaving about 2” of the dough on the edges uncovered.

Take a slice of mango and pass it through the sugar, like lightly trying to cover it. Place a slice over the cream cheese, you may place it vertical to you to make that your starting point. If comparing to a clock, you’ll position the first slice at 12. Repeat with the remaining slices, placing one slice just below the first one, at 6, then at 3 and 9. From there just fill the remaining space in between slices forming like a start shape. Gently close the dough edge and pinch it with itself as much as you can. Transfer parchment paper with pie to a small baking sheet that fits on your freezer and place it on the freezer for about 20 minutes, or just transfer the parchment paper directly to the freezer. Freezing will prevent shrinkage.

In a small bowl beat the egg and mix with the milk and oil.

Take frozen pie out of the freezer and using a pastry brush brush all the exposed border of the dough. Cover the dough as well with the remaining two tablespoons of sugar.

Bake crostata for about 40 to 45 minutes, until the border is crispy and golden yellow. It will probably loose a lot of juice but that ok since the water content of mangoes is pretty high. Still you’ll end up with a flaky crust and firm fruit inside.

To reheat, just place a slice on a countertop oven and heat to 350°. Heat for a couple of minutes and then remove from oven. You may let the pieces cool down over a rack before eating them.