Easy Hollandaise Sauce - In Less Than 60 Seconds! - Recipe Winners (2024)

FAQs

What is the basic formula for hollandaise? ›

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 sauces are best cooked at temperatures around 120-140 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything over this maximum puts this condiment at risk of splitting, which occurs when the creamy, smooth emulsion of the egg yolks, lemon juice, and melted butter breaks. The sauce will separate into pools of fat floating in liquid.

"But there are a lot of ways things can go wrong. If you don't whisk fast enough or pour in your butter too fast it'll turn greasy and broken. Don't cook the eggs enough and it won't thicken properly. If you cook the eggs too much and you'll end up with clumpy, greasy, scrambled eggs.

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.

contain lecithin, a natural emulsifier. When egg yolks are whisked vigorously with a liquid (water and acid) while warm butter is added slowly, lecithin coats the fat droplets and holds them in a suspension. The process by which generally unmixable liquids, such as oil and water, are forced into a uniform distribution.

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.

Raw eggs are used in homemade versions of foods such as mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce. Unpasteurized dairy products. Unpasteurized milk and milk products — sometimes called raw milk — may be contaminated with salmonella. The pasteurization process kills harmful bacteria, including salmonella.

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.

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).

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.

How do I know when hollandaise sauce is done? ›

Continue whisking until the sauce just starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Remove the Sauce from Heat – Once thickened, immediately remove the sauce from heat and season it with more cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Serve immediately or cover to keep warm.

Make sure the butter is between 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit (55-60 degrees Celsius). While constantly whisking, add the butter to the sabayon in a steady stream. Add enough butter until you achieve a somewhat thick consistency. You will not need all of the butter, but it is better to have more on hand than too little.

Another beloved French classic, the béarnaise sauce is interestingly referred to as the child of the hollandaise, one of the five French mother sauces, along with béchamel, espangole, tomato, and velouté. Still, it's less complicated than the original and doesn't require as much skill or time to whip up.

Hollandaise needs an acid to hold the emulsification of the eggyolks and butter together. Lemon is a good and flavorful source of acid, so yes it should have a slight lemon flavor.

Hollandaise sauce (/hɒlənˈdeɪz/ or /ˈhɒləndeɪz/; French: [ɔlɑ̃dɛz], from French sauce hollandaise meaning “Dutch sauce”) 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 scientific principle here is the development of an emulsion, using egg yolks and lemon juice as agents of that process. You will whisk the egg yolks so vigorously that thousands, perhaps millions, of egg globules are suspended in a mixture of lemon juice, salt and pepper.

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). The result will look thin, greasy, and lumpy.

It is regarded as a "child" of hollandaise sauce. The difference is only in the flavoring: béarnaise uses shallot, black pepper, and tarragon, while hollandaise uses white pepper or a pinch of cayenne. The sauce's name derives from the province of Béarn, France.