Hollandaise Sauce

Name: Hollandaise Sauce (Easy & No-Fail)
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
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)

by Lisa Bryan

1,017 Comments

Updated Oct 23, 2024

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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)

4.88 from 548 votes

Prep: 5

Total: 5

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Lisa Bryan

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Description

Hollandaise sauce is a classic creamy sauce that's perfect for brunch and comes together with 5 simple ingredients. It's easy and foolproof in a blender! Watch the video above to see how I make it.

Video

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.

Nutrition

Course: sauce

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: hollandaise sauce, how to make hollandaise sauce

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About the author

Lisa Bryan

Lisa is a bestselling cookbook author, recipe developer, and YouTuber (with over 2.5 million subscribers) living in sunny Southern California. She started Downshiftology in 2014, and is passionate about making healthy food with fresh, simple and seasonal ingredients.