Confession: I’m a late convert to cheesecake. Call it personal growth or the evolution of my palate, but what I once thought of as a cloyingly rich chunk of sweetened cream cheese disguised as a slice of cake has become one of the first items I look for on any dessert menu. Still, the idea of dealing with cracked tops and water baths is never more unappealing than on a hot summer day. And a failed cheesecake is an expensive mistake to make, given the cost of ingredients. So when I learned that there was supposedly a foolproof way to forgo the entire baking process and still end up with a comparably delicious cheesecake, my interest was piqued. On the topic of confessions, I’ve always classified no-bake desserts as second-tier shortcuts, an acceptable but rarely memorable Plan B — but let’s just say my first bite of no-bake cheesecake was enough to reverse any preconceived notions about the whole topic and fully sell me on the oven-free life. As a no-bake cheesecake newbie, these four r...
