Hollandaise sauce is a must-have for the perfect eggs Benedict, and it’s delicious on asparagus and fish, too. This is the easiest recipe for making the classic sauce at home, with no fuss or mess!
What is hollandaise sauce?
Hollandaise is one of the five basic mother sauces, sharing the spotlight with bechamel, veloute, tomato, and Espagnole sauces. It’s a rich, creamy sauce made by emulsifying egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice or vinegar, and spices. The ingredients for the sauce are whisked together in a bowl, set over a pot of simmering water, until the eggs are cooked and a thick sauce forms.
There is no doubt that learning how to make hollandaise sauce will help you impress everyone sitting at your weekend brunch table. For whatever the reason, people tend to feel fancy when eating eggs Benedict. Aside from that, the rich, velvety smooth sauce is incredibly delicious over vegetables, especially asparagus and broccoli!
Is it safe to eat raw eggs?
Although some people eat raw eggs for the high protein value, there is a risk of Salmonella bacteria being present in uncooked eggs. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Salmonella is responsible for 23,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths a year. For that reason, some people have concerns about the fact that the eggs in Hollandaise sauce are only partially cooked.
The real question is, can you get Salmonella from eating hollandaise sauce? While the possibility of it does exist, it is not likely to happen. Here are some facts to consider:
According to the FDA, eggs qualify as “safe” to eat once they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, the heat will kill any Salmonella bacteria.
The classic hollandaise sauce recipe, originating in France, called for raw eggs, straight from the farm. To prevent the risk of foodborne illness, many chefs and cooks nowadays use pasteurized eggs to make hollandaise. The pasteurization process uses very high heat, so any bacteria present will be killed off.
When you make a hollandaise sauce recipe, simply use common sense and proper food handling and you should be just fine.
The perfect hollandaise sauce is smooth, slightly glossy looking, and pourable. If you notice a grainy appearance, it’s a sign that your sauce is “broken”, meaning, the ingredients have separated. If this happens, know that it happens to just about everyone at one point or another. The good news is, you may not need to toss the sauce – broken hollandaise sauce can sometimes be fixed!
To fix the broken sauce, you can try one of two things:
Whisk a teaspoon of boiling water, one drop at a time, into the broken sauce, OR
Place one egg yolk into a large bowl and very slowly whisk the broken hollandaise into the bowl.
Hollandaise Sauce
Prep Time: 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 10 minutesminutes
Total Time: 15 minutesminutes
Servings: 6servings
Hollandaise sauce is a must-have for the perfect eggs Benedict, and it's delicious on asparagus and fish, too. We have the easiest recipe for making the classic sauce at home, with no fuss or mess!
Print Recipe
Ingredients
1/2cupbutter, melted - 1 stick, 113g
1tspdijon mustard
1Tbsplemon juice
2egg yolks
salt/pepper - optional
Instructions
Melt the butter over low heat until almost all liquid. Remove from heat right before it's all melted and stir until completely melted. Transfer into a container with a spout.
Separate eggs and put egg yolks in a bowl that fits over a small pot without touching the pot's bottom.
Add dijon mustard and lemon juice to egg yolks and salt (pepper) if using unsalted butter and whisk until smooth.
Bring 1 cup of water to a low simmer in a small pot and once simmering add bowl with egg yolk-mustard-lemon mixture on top and whisk constantly until slightly warm.
Pour butter in a very thin steady stream to the yolk mix while continuously whisking. NEVER STOP WHISKING.
Depending on how liquid and pourable or thick you want your hollandaise you either remove the sauce from the heat right away or keep whisking for a couple more minutes. When you ALMOST reached the consistency you like, remove from the heat and still continue whisking, it will thicken up still a little bit more. See video.
Why Does Hollandaise Sauce Break? Over-heating or overcooking the egg yolks is one culprit. Next time, be sure to use a double boiler and heat the yolks gently to avoid overcooking them. The second cause is either adding too much butter or adding it too quickly.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, cold water, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Gradually whisk yolk mixture into butter. Continue whisking over low heat for 8 minutes, or until sauce is thickened.
Hollandaise sauce (/hɒlənˈdeɪz/ or /ˈhɒləndeɪz/; French: [ɔlɑ̃dɛz]), meaning Dutch sauce in French, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice (or a white wine or vinegar reduction). It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper.
The most common mistake people make with Hollandaise is adding melted butter that is too hot, or adding too much too soon. When this happens, the emulsion breaks — it becomes thin and grainy. If your butter is too hot, just stop making the Hollandaise for a minute or two to allow the butter to cool.
Because of its water content, more whole butter is needed to thicken a hollandaise then just straight clarified butter. Make sure your acid reduction is cool before the egg yolks are added or they may curdle.
Hollandaise can be very finicky and there are several reasons why this particular sauce can curdle or split. If the heat is too high, the egg yolks will curdle and the sauce will become grainy. When a sauce splits, this means that the fat has separated from the egg foam (the sauce has lost its emulsion).
It's what happens next that sets them apart: Hollandaise gets its acidity from lemon juice (sometimes vinegar) and is usually seasoned with salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. Béarnaise, meanwhile, builds upon hollandaise with white wine vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and other fresh herbs.
Add 1 tsp Dijon mustard to your bowl or blender before you add in the eggs. The mustard with stabilize your sauce and will prevent it from separating. If you notice your hollandaise is too thick while whisking or blending, add 1 tbsp of hot water before you sauce has a chance to separate.
The butter breaks into minute droplets, while the egg yolk acts as an emulsifier, helping to keep those droplets dispersed, as well as thickening the sauce. What you get is a creamy, smooth sauce with a rich texture and mild flavor, perfect for topping eggs, fish, or vegetables.
How do you fix a runny hollandaise? Blenders tend to make runny hollandaise - it's usually because the butter was too cold and hasn't cooked the eggs enough to thicken them. To thicken a runny hollandaise, tip the mixture into a heatproof bowl set over simmering water and whisk over the heat until thickened.
Hollandaise is a tangy, buttery sauce made by slowly whisking clarified butter into warm egg yolks. So the liquid here is the clarified butter and the thickening agent is the egg yolks.
Popular theory places its origin to a town in Normandy, France called "Isigny-Sur-Mer", known for its high-quality butter. According to history, France couldn't produce its own butter during the First World War and imported it from Holland – which led to it being known as Hollandaise.
While there's risk in eating undercooked meat (rare burgers) and raw egg dishes (Caesar dressing), hollandaise is particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness because the egg yolks aren't fully cooked, and the sauce isn't served hot (eggs should be heated to at least 135 degrees).
If you are concerned about salmonella, use pasteurized eggs or cook the eggs to at least 165F to kill any bacteria; however, this can potentially cause the eggs to scramble. Egg yolks start to coagulate around 149F (65C) and will start to curdle around 160-170F (yolks completely curdle at 185F (85C).
Many recipes call for different ratios of egg yolk to butter. Egg yolk size can vary substantially. Your recipe is definitely at the low egg/high butter end of the spectrum. Considering it came out looking great, add another egg yolk next time, and another the time after that.
The white sauce is fatty or butter splits from sauce
Cause: Too much fat added or roux was heated too much. Solution: Take the pot off the stove and use a few layers of paper towel to pat sauce to absorb the fat. If that doesn't work, start again.
But one unexpected error bakers can make is adding too much of a good thing, butter. Although butter generally makes it all better, bakers who go overboard with it are dooming their cookies to a greasy and crumbly texture.
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