How to Make Hollandaise Sauce – Hollandaise Sauce is one of the great classic sauces of the world that’s notoriously hard to make by hand, even for seasoned chefs. This recipe uses a really easy blender stick method that takes 90 seconds flat with exactly the same quality!
Use for Eggs Benedict and steamed asparagus, and it’s also particularly spectacular with crustaceans such as lobster, crab, prawns/shrimp and scallops.
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Hollandaise Sauce
This classic sauce is regarded as one of the most technically challenging in the French cooking repertoire. Traditionally made with just a whisk and bowl set over a double boiler, it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes of vigorous whisking. If the heat is too high you end up with scrambled eggs. Too low, then the sauce never thickens. If the butter cools too much, it will split. And if you don’t whisk vigorously enough, then the sauce never emulsifies.
Though I can understand that there is a sense of accomplishment making Hollandaise Sauce the traditional way, advances in technology have given us the ability to use faster, easier techniques that produces results with exactly the same quality as hand-whisked.
So while I am sure that many professional chefs probably scoff at the thought of making Hollandaise Sauce using a blender – or immersion blender, as is the case with this recipe – it makes difficult sauces like Hollandaise Sauce not just accessible to ordinary folk like myself, but dead easy and foolproof!
HOW TO MAKE HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
To make this recipe, simply heat up some butter (and it needs to be hot!) and stream it into the blended egg yolk mixture to create a velvety smooth sauce.
- Melt the butter in a microwave for about 1 minute until hot.
- Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, dijon, salt and cayenne pepper into a high powered blender and blend for 5 seconds.
- Slowly stream in the hot butter into the mixture as the blender is running.
- Pour the sauce into a small bowl and drizzle over your meal!
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE INGREDIENTS
All you’ll need for this sauce are six ingredients. And you probably have them in your fridge and pantry already.https://6d4d26b369d05b8427de71c9b2594ada.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
- Egg Yolks – 3 eggs
- Lemon Juice – 1 tablespoon
- Dijon – 1 teaspoon
- Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
- Cayenne Pepper – just a pinch
- Butter- 1/2 cup of melted butter
HOW TO FIX BROKEN HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
The key to getting the consistency right all comes down to the hot melted butter. This recipe emulsifies butter into an egg yolk and lemon juice mixture. So you want to make sure you’re streaming in butter that’s hot enough (just melted won’t do).
But in the case that your sauce does break and becomes a speckled mess, don’t fret. Below are two methods to try that will help bring your sauce back to life.
- Blend 1-2 tablespoons of boiling hot water: As you’re blending, slowly add in the hot water and blend until the consistency is right.
- Add an extra egg yolk: While the blender is on, add an extra egg yolk with a teaspoon of hot water into the blender and blend until it becomes perfectly creamy.
CAN YOU USE AN IMMERSION BLENDER?
Yes, absolutely! If you have an immersion blender, add all of the ingredients except the hot butter. Turn the blender on (with it firmly planted on the bottom of the cup or jar) and slowly drizzle in the butter. It will start to emulsify and once you’ve poured in all the butter you’re done!
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HOW TO STORE AND REHEAT HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
While this sauce is best served fresh, you do have the option of reheating it. But keep in mind that there could be a chance where your eggs will cook up a bit. So here are two options for reheating – just be cautious!
- Microwave: Place the hollandaise sauce in a glass bowl, and microwave it in 15 second increments. Repeat this process until your sauce is fully warmed up.
- Stove Top: Pour the hollandaise sauce into a pan over low heat. Add in a smidge of melted butter and water to re-emulsify and give it a smooth texture. Once it’s warmed up, pour the sauce back into a serving bowl.
What’s in Hollandaise Sauce?
Hollandaise sauce is a creamy yellow sauce, an emulsion of egg yolk, melted butter and lemon juice. It’s the main flavor component of eggs Benedict, but also a lovely sauce to top vegetables, fish, or whatever else you’d like.
What Makes Hollandaise “Break”?
Instead of being beautifully light yellow and creamy, a broken Hollandaise will be curdled or runny.
There are a few ways Hollandaise sauce can separate, or “break.” Overheating or overcooking the egg yolk can case the sauce to separate. Also, adding too much butter or adding it too quickly can also cause the sauce to separate.
Tips to Ensure a Creamy Hollandaise Sauce
- Blend the egg yolks for 30 full seconds in Step 2. This step heats the egg yolks and gives the sauce body, so it’s not runny.
- Add butter in a thin stream, not all at once.
- Don’t melt the butter at a high temperature, because it’ll evaporate the water in the butter. And a little extra water helps the hollandaise emulsify better.
- If the butter is only barely warm, it won’t heat the yolks enough to thicken the sauce. If the sauce is emulsified but too thin, pour the sauce into the pot you melted the butter in and heat over low heat, whisking constantly until it gets more body.
Can You Store and Reuse Leftover Hollandaise?
The short answer is…kind of. Hollandaise sauce does not store well, and it’s best eaten soon after it is made. You can make it about 30 minutes in advance and keep it warm on top of a double boiler of hot water (not boiling) on a warm stove or in a 200°F oven. Just be sure to stir it occasionally to keep the emulsion from separating.
If you do need to store leftover Hollandaise longer, you can refrigerate for at most 3 days (though 1 to 2 days is best). It can also be frozen, but we don’t really recommend it.
You can reheat Hollandaise sauce, but you must do so gently. To reheat, place the Hollandaise in a double boiler or in a heat-safe bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir it frequently as it heats up just to warm, not hot.
Conclusion
While this sauce may seem a bit on the fancy side, it’s actually very easy to make! But like many other emulsions, the fear that it will separate or not come together can be a bit nerve wracking.