Make the most of mango season with this simple dessert

When mangoes arrive, it’s time to party! With this recipe, you can make a very nice dessert that’s super easy and ready in minutes.

You can have mangoes in so many ways, but nothing tastes better than the desserts we can fashion out of these golden heavenly fruits. And the best part is that most of the desserts can be made with very little or no cooking and baking, since ripe mangoes have a luscious texture and mouth-watering flavour that needs little tempering. When you are using mangoes, the fruit needs to be centre stage, so the fewer the ingredients, the better the taste.

Today’s recipe is of mango delight, a simple dessert with the sweetness of mangoes taken a few notches higher by the addition of sweetened condensed milk, cream, plain vanilla cake slices … and that’s it!

You can consider it a trifle too, since I have used cake slices and layered the ingredients, but as there are no custard, jelly or cooking involved, like in a traditional trifle, it doesn’t really fall in that category.

But what’s in the name after all? All we want is a sweet, chilled and smooth mango dessert and this is it!

This irresistible treat is served chilled and can be made a few hours in advance or even put together in minutes when unexpected guests arrive.

Ingredients

1 cup mango pieces

1 cup mango pulp

1 packet (200g) cream

1/4 cup milk

1/2 can (100g) condensed milk, or to taste

Vanilla cake slices

Method

Add a couple of tablespoons of condensed milk in milk, stir and keep aside.

Blend the mango pulp into puree. Keep aside.

Beat cream; add the mango pulp and the remaining condensed milk. Mix well with hand or electric beater.

At this point, taste the cream mixture for sweetness, and add more condensed milk if needed, since the sweetness of mangoes vary according to their types.

Take a serving dish, layer the bottom with cake slices, and pour the milk and condensed milk mixture over it to moisten the cake. Pour a layer of the mango cream mixture, saving half for the top layer.

Places the mango pieces over this cream layer, and then top with the remaining cream. Decorate the top in any way that pleases you — I simply used some mango chunks and cream.

Note: Jelly, nuts and other things can also be added in the layers, the choice depends on your taste buds.

I have kept the recipe very simple and straightforward, needing just some fruit cutting and mixing. Why cook in this heat when something so delightful can be whipped up, literally, in minutes!

Just chill this and enjoy!

The writer Instagrams @the_experimentalcook

Originally published in Dawn, Young World, June 17th, 2023