Chocolate mousse.

Now for a easy and almost fail safe desert that you can make in a matter of a few moments. It is the ideal thing to make if you are worried about your cooking skills, you can make it in advance and just let it sit in the fridge until you are ready for it. So this is ideal for any first time dinner parts that you might want to do or just a first meal to impress someone. 

You will only need

170g/6oz dark chocolate

7 egg whites

¼ tsp lemon juice

40g/1½oz caster sugar

Now a word to the wise, use a good-quality dark chocolate.  You do not want any old chocolate but the very minimum 60 per cent cocoa solids.  Then roughly chop it and place it in a bowl.  Then place the bowl over a pan of warm water and let the chocolate melt.  However, make sure that the bowl does not touch the water.

While you are waiting for the chocolate to melt you can whisk your egg whites.  Now make sure that you just have egg whites and no shell or yolk in them or you will have problems whisking them.  Also, make sure that the bowl that you use is a clean bowl any kind of fat or dirt will make it hard to whisk the egg whites and make them hold.

 Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice in a large, clean bowl until you have soft peaks.  The affect of whisking with the lemon juice will help stabilise the egg whites. Now add the sugar and continue to whisk until you have a firm peak , so they hold there shape when you remove the whisk. Now you do not want to whisk past this point or your eggs will start top break down and you will get a liquid starting to from at the bottom of the bowl.

Now you have to bring every thing together, take your melted chocolate of the heat, and add about one third of the egg white to the chocolate.  Use the whisk to work this in to the chocolate as quickly as you can.  You need to combine this so that all the egg white is combined with the chocolate. 

Now using a spatula fold the rest of the egg white gently in to the egg white.  Now be very careful not to over mix this and knock all the air out of the mousse . Once all the egg and chocolate have been mixed together, spoon the mix in to a glass or ramekin and set them in the fridge for about 2 to 3 hour so that they set .

Now despite what you might think, this is an easy thing to make and you can garnish it to look really impressive.