Yes, this recipe uses fresh mangoes. The first time I tasted a mango bar was during my dad’s wake (sorry, morbid, I know). I won’t get into what wakes are like in the Philippines. Suffice to say, it was a slice forever etched in my memory.
Back to the mango bar: this particular mango bar which I bit into contained bits of dried mangoes. And so off I went in search of a mango bar recipe. I found several. Several disappointments, that is. Not a single recipe came close to that one bar that I tasted. I haven’t given up but in the meantime, I decided to use fresh mangoes instead.
Fresh mango bars use mangoes that are very ripe, extraordinarily fragrant. The plump flesh is orange in color, ripe of luscious sweetness. So much so that I don’t need to use any sugar at all for this topping. Add a tablespoon of sugar, if you want or if the mangoes have a slightly sour tang. The gorgeousness of these mango slices comes from the naturally-occurring sweet nuances of the fruit itself. Adding more than a tablespoon of sugar will just give a one-dimensional flavor. How boring is that?
The fruit filling sits on a slab of buttery goodness. The dough is crumbled and sprinkled over the filling, too. Prepare the crust before the mango filling so that the mango juice doesn’t seep into the dough.
The shortbread crust, while soft and crumbly, can hold its own. It’s not so frail as to break when handled but it needs to firm up by cooling completely once out of the oven. Chilling the bars for at least two hours in the fridge will make it easier to pull the slab from the pan and sliced into squares.
If you don’t want cold fresh mango bars straight from the fridge, simply leave a bar (or two or three) on the counter until it gets to room temperature.
Fresh Mango Bars
Difficulty: Easy15
minutes35
minutesIngredients
- Shortbread Crust
200g unsalted butter
75g sugar
120g all purpose or plain flour
130g self-raising flour
- Fresh Mango Filling
3 cups ripe mangoes, diced
1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot
Instructions
- Shortbread Crust
- Preheat oven to 175C/350C. Place oven tray in the middle rung. Lightly oil or butter an 8×8-inch square pan. Line the pan with parchment paper extending over two sides of the pan.
- Using a hand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light in color and creamy in texture. You can also cream by hand.
- Sift the flours on the butter mixture. Mix to a soft dough.
- Press two-thirds of the dough into the pan. Smooth the surface.
- Fresh Mango Filling
- Sprinkle the cornstarch over the mangoes. Using clean hands, gently toss the mangoes to distribute the flour.
- Spread the filling on the crust.
- Crumble the remaining dough and sprinkle on the filling
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust is golden
- Cool completely in the pan. Cut into squares although it’s easier to slice if the bars are chilled in the fridge for at least two hours.
