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.
This recipe makes the perfect hollandaise sauce! Thanks for the fix tips although I didn’t need them thankfully. Probably the best I’ve ever had!
Amazing! Now you can have homemade hollandaise sauce all the time :)
This recipe is amazing!!! I only ever attempted hollandaise once before and remember it being runny and having to spend time whisking over the stove. This was so bloody easier and tasted amazing! The thickness was perfect!
I’m so glad you loved it, Effie!
I have never tried to do a scratch hollandaise before. This was excellent in it didn’t break and tasted close to perfection but not quite. But pretty sure it would have been over the moon incredible if I had used unsalted butter and not substituted sirrracha for cayenne.
Next time, I would try to use the ingredients as is so it comes out perfectly :)
Easy but ours came out a bit thing and it just wasn’t lemony enough although I added a bit more lemon which may be why it was thin. Just not the lucious buttery lemon I like in a hollandaise.
Hi Artemesia – if it came out a bit thin, it sounds like it may not have fully emulsified. Hope your next try comes out better!
So, you want to know what else works to make this? My dinky little USB charged frother for my coffee. It’s just a little easier to clean than my immersion blender.
And that also means that you can make this at the office. ;)
Good to know Miz! Hadn’t thought about using that.
Can you make this Hollandaise with vegan butter for a dairy free version?
Hi Kelly – I haven’t tried that yet. If you do, let us know how it turns out!
Can I sub a different mustard for dijon?
Hi Brandon – yes, you can. It will just alter the flavor a bit.
Tastes like butter
Hi Dale – yes, hollandaise is a lemon butter sauce, so it should taste like butter. ;)
I really wanted to like this but bleh! To thick, too salty and too lemony. Stick to the tried and true old fashioned recipes for hollandaise. This one just didn’t cut it for me.
Hi Bonnie – sorry you didn’t love this version. It’s actually very similar to the classic French version, but made in a blender. So I’d love to know what you do differently!
Hi!
Can a food processor be used instead of a blender?
Hi Annette – I haven’t tried it, but I don’t know if it would emulsify properly.
Hello, how do you keep the sauce hot if we are cooking for a dozen or more family members? Definitely going to try this!
Hi Nick – I’ve heard that some people keep it warm in crockpot or slow cooker for large gatherings. Hope you enjoy!
Good and easy! This sauce is good on everything. Thanks for the recipe.
Glad you loved this hollandaise sauce Tammy!
I’ve always been afraid of making hollandaise because it seemed so difficult. This was so easy and tasted great!
Happy to hear this turned out great Christine!
I haven’t made hollandaise sauce in more than 10 years. I got desperate today and was excited to give this a try. I’m not a fan of putting plastic wrap in the microwave so I cooked the butter longer on a lower power. I didn’t have lemon (what?!!! I always have lemons!) so I used AC vinegar. I’m sure the lemon would be better, but this was SO. DANG. GOOD!!!! THANKS FOR THIS!!!!!
Yay, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Best recipe ever!! Thank you!!
Wonderful! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Trick to fix sauce that didn’t emulsify. I didn’t follow directions re slowly addiding butter and it did not emulsify. I added about two tablespoons of the leftover egg white and it emulsified in less than 30 seconds.
Thanks for sharing your tip, Philip!
This is the best hollandaise sauce recipe. The left over sauce was still great the next day and it didn’t go rock hard like some recipes I’ve tried. Was great mixed through kale and walnut salad
Happy to hear you enjoyed this hollandaise sauce Deb!
Looks good, have not made it yet, but like the way you present, I live in my kitchen (always tell people if you want to assassinate me blow up my kitchen), my skills is sauces, pan frying, braais (BBQ in USA), stews and pie master.
Andries (From South African)
Perfect! Recommend doing double the recipe (6 egg yolks etc) for a Vitamix
Great recipe and tips on reheat and storage! My only preference would be to use the immersion blender. The usual blender is much more difficult to clean afterward, The sauce remnants will cool and coagulate in the blades and deep recess, and you pretty well have to take it apart to do a thorough job. This won’t matter if you’re just cooking for others, but if you want your own meal hot, you may discover this is what you return too at clean-up time.
Super easy and delicious!
A real hit drizzled over poached eggs, English muffins and smoked salmon. A side of grilled asparagus and spring onions makes a perfect spring brunch or supper.
It sure does! Glad this came together perfectly.
Super easy to make, much easier than using a double boiler on the stovetop! Mine turned out perfect the first attempt.
Happy to hear your first attempt was a success Cindy!
Can you freeze leftover sauce? Thanks!
Hi Pete – I don’t recommend it.
Finally! The perfect hollandaise sauce! I’ve tried so many recipes but somehow the hollandaise sauce tastes ‘tinny’. I could not understand why my sauces kept producing a metallic taste and would just hope that I could get my hollandaise fix at the breakfast spots that would actually make it from scratch and not the awful packaged junk. Thanks to this recipe I can now make it at home! I was worried we’d have too much leftover, but the opposite was true! Definitely printing this recipe and holding onto it!!
Happy to hear you’re able to perfect a hollandaise right at home with this recipe Hanah!
I’m a terrible cook and even I found this easy to make.
Very delicious and not too rich.
Will be making this every time.
Yum! 😋
Happy to hear this recipe was easy to follow along to Sarah!
The quickest, easiest and foolproof hollandaise recipe so far!
Made with a hand blender and tastes great
Glad this was a success Sonia!
Dry Dijon mustard?
No, this is using liquid dijon mustard.
Very good, the consistency was spot on, next time I’m going to try it with unsalted butter tho, my husband is a spaz about salt 😉
Glad this turned out great!
Wow – I have never attempted hollandaise sauce before and just followed this recipe using a stick blender. It was fantastic, instantly creamy and thick! I have bookmarked this recipe for the future. Thank you!
Happy to hear this turned out to be a success with a stick blender!
mine came out runny, how do I make a thicker sauce? The flavor was on point! My butter was very hot.
Hi Janice – if it came out runny, it sounds like it didn’t emulsify properly. Make sure to read the tips above to fix that. :)
1st time hollandaise for me.
i put a bit too much lemon but it was still excellent.
perfect consistency.
will make again
This is so easy and delicious!
Glad you enjoyed this hollandaise sauce recipe Deborah!
I have not made “real” hollandaise sauce for over 20 years–I’ve been lazy and succumbed to the powdered packets. However, your recipe and technique is a game changer! Thank you for posting the detailed steps and also for including additional content addressing broken sauces, immersion blenders, and reheating!
Glad all these tips were helpful John!