Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise sauce is a classic creamy sauce that’s perfect for breakfast or brunch! This recipe is easy and no-fail. It takes just 5 minutes in a blender. Drizzle it on top of poached eggs, eggs Benedict, vegetables or several other recipes for a delicious finishing touch.
If you’ve had eggs Benedict before, you’ve probably encountered this rich and buttery sauce. It’s got the creamiest consistency and its flavors meld beautifully with ingredients such as eggs, asparagus, or salmon.
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. So today, I’ll walk you through the step by step on how to make perfect homemade hollandaise sauce.
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.
- 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!
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.
More Classic Sauce Recipes
If you thought this recipe was simple, you won’t believe how easy it is make these other sauces. So skip the store-bought jars and opt to make fresh, homemade versions.
Whip any of these up and you can get creative with recipes such as my sweet potato gnocchi with pesto or parsnip noodle chicken alfredo!
Hollandaise Sauce (Easy & No-Fail)
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice , or more as desired for flavor
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter or ghee, or more for a thinner consistency, melted and hot
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a microwave (make sure it's covered as it will splatter) for about 1 minute, until it's hot. Alternatively, you could heat it on the stove.
- Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, dijon, salt and cayenne pepper into a high powered blender and blend for 5 seconds until combined.
- With the blender running on medium high, slowly stream in the hot butter into the mixture until it's emulsified.
- Pour the hollandaise sauce into a small bowl and serve while warm.
Lisa's Tips
- I mention this above, but just to reiterate... your butter needs to be hot, not just melted. The recipe will not emulsify with luke warm butter.
- If you'd like more sauce, just add another yolk and up to another 1/2 cup of melted butter.
Not bad for my first attempt. I used bottled lemon juice. Probably more sour than fresh lemon. Added with the Dijon mustard, it came out quite tangy, which both the wife and I did not like this homemade version, seeing as it was my first time having hollandaise sauce at home. Next time I’ll either cut back on the lemon juice or omit it. But in terms of texture, creaminess, it was spot on!
Have made this recipe before and it turned out great! Today was “teach the kids how to make it” day, so they can become more self sufficient and get closer to moving out. Lol
Brilliant recipe though and tastes so close to the stove top method.
Haha, I love that you’re spreading the cooking knowledge. ;)
Really simple and delicious! I don’t think I will ever double broiler hollandaise again. For previous comments where recipie did not work, would the quality rating or temperature of the eggs affect the recipie?
Absolutely loved this hollandaise!!! I was so nervous to make it, but you were right- so easy. I used an immersion blender and a wide mouth mason jar. Thanks as always, Lisa!
Glad this worked out with an immersion blender!
I’ve made this sauce lots of times, so easy and quick and delicious
This recipe became a hot mess when I made it. Adding butter it immediately separated even though the butter was plenty hot. I would never try this blender recipe again. Also it had a dijon mustard color, looked nothing like Hollandaise sauce. Tried adding the extra egg yoke nothing helped it. Ruined my eggs Benedict with crab and asparagus that I had prepared for New Years brunch. Back to the pan method for me.
Being the one and only person on here who was unable to successfully make this sauce using this recipe I’m just curious if it’s the recipe that was faulty or the only person unable to complete that maybe should give it another go?
This was delicious and easy, thank you!
Worked very well – added a touch more lemon to thin out
Glad you enjoyed it Jerome!
Great recipe! For those whom may be familiar with Aunt Penny’s Hollandaise sauce in the can, this recipe is the closest (even better) I have come in my quest to replace it–the company is no longer, the product is gone forever ,I am told.
One thing I would change about it is to reduce or eliminate the 1/4 teaspoon of salt, particularly if you use salted butter in the recipe. Other than that it is definitely a 5 star rating in my humble opinion.
First time making this and within just a minute it got clumpy. What happened??
Probably too hot. Its a delicate temperature.
I prefer to boil a pot (low boil) and then set a metal bowl on top so that the steam heats the bowl. I whisk it there so I can control the temp
Can I get a “Ho yea!”?
Hooooooo yeaaaaaaa!