Baking With Dorie: Mango Crumb Cake

I'm back. The hiatus is over. And I've discovered yet another delicious way to incorporate mangoes into a BWD challenge. This week Tina of My Domestic Bliss chose the Blueberry Crumb Cake and I had no choice but to play around with the recipe.

I have to admit that I didn't plan this one. It happened quite simply because I'm back home after days, had no time for grocery shopping and mangoes and pecans were what I had on hand. I love mangoes. I love streusel toppings. And I love pecans. It couldn't go wrong.

And I was right. This cake is light and super-moist; the buttery, sugary, streusel adds a nice crunch. The flavors from the mango in the cake and the cinnamon in the crust came together to form a complex flavor instead of overpowering each other. For me - the streusel is the super star in this recipe. There is nothing I didn't love about this bake!

Thank you for choosing this recipe, Tina! You can find the recipe on Tina's blog, My Domestic Bliss, or on Pages 192-3 of Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Please check out the blogroll here to check out the other BWD bakers. Our next challenge will be posted on August 16, and it is the Brown Sugar Bundt Cake, chosen by Chaya of Chaya's Comfy Cook Blog. If you'd like to join us, please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us!

How To Eat a Mango

This tutorial is for my 'mango-challenged' friend Susi. She asked for a  step-by-step tutorial on how to cut mangoes after I put up post on the previous BWD challenge.

I have to admit, at the risk of sounding narcissistic, the mango did look pretty in the photo I took for the post. The one I have used today is a mango with more fiber so it doesn't have the nice clean lines the other one did. 

So that is step #1 : The choice of mango is important. Choose a firm, sweet mango with little fiber. Look at the stickers on mangoes when you're out buying them to see where they originate from. Mangoes from Brazil or Kenya, for example, are much like the one I used today and have a lot of fiber in their flesh. 

Small, pulpy mangoes will not work either if you want to cut them this way. Anyway, here we go: 

All I had was two mangoes. The one on the front is the one I chose for the tutorial before I realized (after cutting it) that I should have chosen the Pakistani mango at the back (which is what I used in my old post).

Cut as close as possible to the stone this way and please ignore the fact that I need a manicure.

Repeat with the other side.

Now, pick one half up in the palm of your hand and cut into the flesh (without tearing the skin) along the length of the mango.

Repeat by cutting along the width.

Now, just hold it from the sides and turn the skin out.

I know, not as pretty as the mangoes here but it's not too bad, right? At this point, you can slice as close to the skin as possible while holding the mango-half over a bowl and you will get perfect mango cubes. 

Or (and this is better) this is also a pretty way to present mango when you have company, since it can be eaten right off the skin with a spoon. 

I'm throwing in this next bit for fun. If you have small kids, here's a fun way for them to eat their mangoes. Cut all around the middle of a mango :

Then twist one half off. Here's what you will get:

Kids can eat out of their 'mango cups' with a spoon (you could even fill the scooped-out half with some ice-cream). I loved eating mangoes this way as a kid & still do! And so does my offspring: