Mango Cream Cheese Pie Recipe

After seeing pictures of this beautiful layered mango dessert made recently by two different friends, I was intrigued.  And since I still had some mangoes, I thought I'd give it a try.  

First off, this recipe needs to come with a warning.  Here's my suggestion:  WARNING.  This recipe has many steps and no time allotment guidance besides the directions of cool and chill so if you are making this for the first time, it might take you the entire night.  And you won't get to enjoy it until the next night (because it needed to chill) after you have tortured yourself all day wondering if it turned out okay, but you don't know because you are stuck at work.  Good luck. 

We start with the crust.  Sift together 2 cups of flour and half cup of powder sugar.  Cut 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter into dry ingredients.  Pat into a 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Cool. 

At this point I would normally start the second step, but I didn't want the cream cheese layer to be sitting around for the baking time plus the cooling time.  I guess I could have just stuck it in the fridge, but I didn't and instead started dinner for the kids.

As the kids were eating, I started the cream cheese layer.  Use a mixer to combine 8oz cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Fold in 8oz cool whip (defrosted).  Chill.  You want this layer to be firm before adding the last layer.

The next layer involves cooling gelatin so I started this last step while the second layer was chilling.  Mix 2 packages of knox gelatin in 1 cup of water and add 1 cup of boiling water, 1 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Keep mixing until dissolved.  Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and cool.  After cooling, add this mixture with 4 cups of firm, diced mango.  Chill until mixture begins to gel. 

Ladle over the cream cheese layer and refrigerate until the top layer is firm.   

The next night when I finally cut into the pie, it was delicious!  Definitely not as pretty as the ones my friends made, but I admit I made a ton of mistakes: I halved the recipe, used overripe mangoes, omitted the lemon juice, and accidentally let the mango layer solidify too long before topping the dessert. Still, it turned out delicious!