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.
Your tip to fix “broken” Hollandaise worked miraculously! I panicked at the unsightly curdled mess ( I got distracted heating the butter and it separated), however, I added the extra yolk and a tiny bit of hot water and voila! a beautiful, creamy sauce emerged.
Thank-you!
Glad that little tricked worked out perfectly to fix your hollandaise sauce Catherine!
I used this today on my 15 min break and omg!!! The very best one I have tasted!!! I added more Cajun seasoning and less salt more lemon juice and a whole stick of butter. This is the best!
Glad your hollandaise sauce turned out perfectly :)
Amazing!! What a delight…great instructions and oh so easy! Thank you!
Wow! I’ve never made blender hollandaise sauce before and was pretty intimidated. I followed the directions to the “T” and to my delight, it was perfect!! It was so delicious! My child and I loved it! We had it with baked salmon and rice. I am saving the rest for the egg whites tomorrow! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Yay, I’m happy you both enjoyed the hollandaise sauce, Robin!
This was so easy and came out perfect. I made sure my butter was very hot, I needed an oven mit to pour it into the blender. Eggs Benedict is my boyfriends favorite food so I made it for his birthday, he’s really honest and he said it was perfect and I thought so too. I was nervous because I’ve never even tried to make hollandaise sauce before and it seems kinda intimidating, but this really was perfect and took minutes.
For decades I’ve put Hollandaise sauce in the too-hard pile. I had Eggs Benedict at restaurants but never at home. I decided to give it a try over Christmas, and I had no idea it would be so easy! Thank you for this recipe – worked perfectly.
Mine came out very thin… tasted good but was about as thin as the butter I added.
Hi Sheri – it sounds like your hollandaise didn’t emulsify properly. Make sure to read my tips in the post above. :)
This recipe (followed to the T) tasted like buttered Dijon mustard. I had to dump it. Tasted NOTHING like Hollandaise Sauce.
The Dijon flavor shouldn’t be that strong. I’d double check and make sure you didn’t accidentally add 1 tbsp of mustard instead of 1 tsp. :)
One of the easiest and quickest Hollandaise Sauces yet. I would probably add more lemon next time as I like the tang it gives the sauce.
Didn’t get the thick consistency I’m used to getting when I cook it over the stove
I LOVE hollandaise sauce but dreaded having to make it. This was so easy to make and tasted delicious. I used two tablespoons of lemon juice because I like it with more tart lemon taste. I used my blender to make it as well. Turned out perfect. Will definitely be my go to recipe for hollandaise.
Yayyyyy at last hollandaise sauce success without any separation
I love this recipe.
I use it all the time and it has never failed.
very easy, turned out great. used an immersion blender.
So happy you enjoyed the hollandaise sauce, Pam!
This is fantastic. Thank you!
Great method for preparing Hollandaise. I prefer a little more lemony flavor, so I would increase the lemon juice to 2 Tablespoon.
I used an electric mixer to make mine. It was quite runny to start with but I just kept beating it and it turned out perfect!