Quick Blender Hollandaise Sauce Recipe (SCD) (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 Sauce

One common hollandaise mistake is overcooking the egg yolks, and there's no coming back from that. But the most common problem is that the emulsion breaks, and you see streaks of liquid butter instead of a uniformly creamy sauce.

Pour in butter SLOWLY over 45 seconds while blitzing (high speed) – pouring slowly while mixing is key to ensure your mixture doesn't curdle, that it emulsifies (ie yolks and butter mix together to become a thick creamy sauce rather than staying runny) AND that the hot butter doesn't cook the yolks!

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 teaspoon pepper and cayenne in the jar of a blender. Blend for 15 seconds. With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the blender and blend for 30 seconds, until the sauce is thick.

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.

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.

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).

Hollandaise should be held between 120F to 145F (49 to 63C) so it does not split or curdle. If the sauce is heated above 150F, the eggs can overcook, become grainy and the sauce can potentially split.

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.

What consistency should Hollandaise be? 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.

Does more butter make hollandaise thicker? ›

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. The fresher your egg yolks, the easier it is for you to make your emulsion.

Poached or sauteed chicken breasts are served with a rich buttery Hollandaise sauce are served with hot cooked rice. The chicken breasts are simply poached or sauteed then they're placed on rice, topped with rich homemade hollandaise sauce.

The sister sauces include:

Béarnaise = hollandaise + shallots + tarragon + chervil + peppercorns + white wine vinegar. Chantilly = hollandaise + whipped heavy cream. The tomato sauce is classically served with pasta, fish, vegetables, polenta, veal, poultry, bread, and dumplings such as gnocchi.

White wine vinegar provides an excellent alternative to lemon juice, but it's worth noting that other citrus options like orange, blood orange, or lime juice can also be used as substitutes. The beauty of these alternatives is that they can impart unique and intriguing flavor profiles to your sauce.

When making hollandaise, some chefs prefer to use clarified butter which is straight butter fat. In order to take advantage of the flavors in butter's milk solids and whey, some chefs prefer to use whole butter.

The classical ingredients of hollandaise sauce are egg yolks, melted (often clarified) butter, mixture of water and wine vinegar and occasionally a drop of lemon juice. Structurally it is both an emulsion and a foam. As with all great gastronomic inventions, the history and the inventor of hollandaise sauce is unknown.

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.