Versatile Hollandaise Sauce Recipes

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Add egg yolks to a small saucepan; whisk until lemon yellow and slightly thick, about 1 minute. Whisk in lemon juice.
• Add 2 tablespoons cold butter, and place over very low heat. Whisk constantly while butter is melting, and continue whisking until thick enough to see the pan between strokes. Remove pan from heat, and beat in 1 tablespoon cold butter. Repeat. Whisk in melted butter a little bit at a time. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

EASY HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until bubbly; do not let brown.
• Combine egg yolks, water, lemon juice, salt, and cayenne in a blender; blend until frothy. With blender running, pour in hot butter in a very thin stream and blend until sauce is thick and emulsified. Promptly pour sauce into a serving bowl.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Make reduction Combine wine, vinegar, shallot, and peppercorns in a small skillet over medium-high heat; cook until reduced to 1 tablespoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the boiling water and strain through a fine sieve into a heatproof nonreactive (stainless-steel or glass) bowl.
• Prepare bain marie (hot-water bath) Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat so water is barely simmering.
• Heat egg yolks Add egg yolks to strained reduction and whisk, off the heat, until they become pale. Place bowl over the bain-marie. Whisking constantly, cook until the mixture is thick enough to hold a trail from the whisk and begins to hold its shape when drizzled from the whisk. Remove from heat. Wipe off any mixture that may have cooked onto the side of the pot with a damp paper towel to prevent any lumps from forming.
• Incorporate butter Whisking constantly, add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until each addition is incorporated completely before adding the next. When all the butter has been added, season with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. The sauce should be thick but still able to drizzle from a spoon (and it should form a pool, not a mound). If it is too thick, thin it with a little water.
• Although traditionally made with melted clarified butter (page 88), softened butter emulsifies more readily with the egg yolks and produces a lighter texture.
• Do not overheat the egg yolks; "temper" them instead by mixing with a bit of boiling water before placing in the hot-water bath to keep them from scorching.
• Simmer over very low heat. If the egg mixture is heated too quickly, it turns grainy; if cooked too long over too high a temperature, it will scramble.
• Add butter gradually to allow the mixture to emulsify. Adding too quickly will cause the emulsion to "break" or separate, preventing the liquid and butter from combining.
• Adjust the finished sauce with water to thin, and add lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper to flavor.
• If not serving immediately, cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming, and set over a pot of water that has been brought to a simmer and then removed from heat, or in a warm spot on the stove for up to 1 hour. Alternatively, store in a clean thermos warmed with hot but not boiling water, holding it for 2 or 3 hours at most.

GRANDMA'S HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine egg yolks and lemon juice in a blender. Blend on high speed. With blender running, pour in hot melted butter in a very thin stream and blend until sauce is thick and emulsified.

RICH HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Fill a small pot with water to a depth of 2 inches; bring to a simmer over medium heat.
• Whisk egg yolks and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in a medium heatproof bowl until well combined and smooth. Set bowl over the simmering water and whisk constantly, moving bowl on and off heat occasionally, until thickened, light yellow, and doubled in volume. The mixture should "ribbon" slightly when a whisk comes in and out. Remove from heat.
• Drizzle melted butter into the egg mixture, a few drops at a time, whisking constantly. Add remaining lemon juice in 2 batches as mixture thickens. Whisk constantly until all butter is incorporated. Whisk in salt and cayenne pepper. Serve immediately.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• Put the butter inside a heatproof bowl or glass measuring cup and set it in a basin of simmering water. Let it heat until the butter is melted.
• Carefully spoon off the white residue on top of the clear yellow liquid in the center. Carefully pour off and reserve the yellow liquid. Discard the milky bottom portion.
• Combine the egg yolks and water, beating rapidly with a wire whisk. Place the saucepan in a larger basin of simmering water, beating constantly. Gradually add the clear yellow liquid, beating constantly while heating the mixture in the simmering water. Do not overheat. Beat and heat until the sauce has the consistency of a thin mayonnaise.
• Add the salt, cayenne pepper and lemon juice and blend thoroughly.

PRACTICALLY NO FAIL HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• The list of ingredients are what is the basic recipe. Melt the butter ahead of time to cool slightly and use something like a microwave safe measuring cup or bowl, makes it much easier to pour with a handle. In a heavy bottom pan on a low setting, put the 3 egg yolks with the water and fresh lemon juice in pan. Whisk together while heating up. When it starts to get "custardy" (sauce sticks to the back of the spoon and you can start to see the bottom of the pan from whisk strokes), take off heat and start adding the melted butter in a slow stream while whisking until completely incorporated into the egg yolks.
• NOTES: You can use bottled lemon juice, but fresh will make a difference like you never knew! You can multiply for larger groups. I have a good rule of thumb that works for me that for every stick of butter, it will serve generously two people. Also, keep the heat low! If you see the yolks starting to curdle, you have it too high! It does require alot of whisking.
• The reason this works so well is that the basic principal of Hollandaise is to incorporate one stick of butter for every egg yolk. With the extra egg yolk, it never seems to fall apart. I will say this also, I have better results with the flavor of the sauce using one salted and one unsalted sticks of butter.
• Uses are on Eggs Benedict, asparagas, artichokes.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Steps:

• In 1 1/2-quart saucepan, vigorously stir egg yolks and lemon juice with wire whisk. Add 1/4 cup of the butter. Heat over very low heat, stirring constantly with wire whisk, until butter is melted.
• Add remaining 1/4 cup butter. Continue stirring vigorously until butter is melted and sauce is thickened. (Be sure butter melts slowly so eggs have time to cook and thicken sauce without curdling.) If the sauce curdles (mixture begins to separate), add about 1 tablespoon boiling water and beat vigorously with wire whisk or hand beater until it's smooth.
• Serve immediately. Store covered in refrigerator. To serve refrigerated sauce, reheat over very low heat and stir in a small amount of water.