30 Second Hollandaise Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a common mistake in hollandaise sauce? ›

Hollandaise Sauce

One common hollandaise mistake is overcooking the egg yolks, and there's no coming back from that. But the most common problem is that the emulsion breaks, and you see streaks of liquid butter instead of a uniformly creamy sauce.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, cold water, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Gradually whisk yolk mixture into butter. Continue whisking over low heat for 8 minutes, or until sauce is thickened.

Why Does Hollandaise Sauce Break? Over-heating or overcooking the egg yolks is one culprit. Next time, be sure to use a double boiler and heat the yolks gently to avoid overcooking them. The second cause is either adding too much butter or adding it too quickly.

To prevent the eggs from scrambling heat the egg yolks in a stainless steel bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water (aka double boiler). The gentle heat of the steam is much more forgiving than a direct flame. Eggs start to curdle at around 160-170 degrees F.

Raw eggs are used in homemade versions of foods such as mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce. Unpasteurized dairy products. Unpasteurized milk and milk products — sometimes called raw milk — may be contaminated with salmonella. The pasteurization process kills harmful bacteria, including salmonella.

Hollandaise should be held between 120F to 145F (49 to 63C) so it does not split or curdle. If the sauce is heated above 150F, the eggs can overcook, become grainy and the sauce can potentially split.

Cornstarch Slurry: A careful blend of cornstarch and water, added bit by bit, provides control over the thickening process. Egg Yolks: Introducing additional egg yolks into the sauce can fortify its structure, leveraging their natural thickening properties.

The butter breaks into minute droplets, while the egg yolk acts as an emulsifier, helping to keep those droplets dispersed, as well as thickening the sauce. What you get is a creamy, smooth sauce with a rich texture and mild flavor, perfect for topping eggs, fish, or vegetables.

You keep whisking the mixture as you add the melted butter because you want to break it up into tiny, tiny drops. Each tiny drop ends up surrounded by emulsifiers . But to give the emulsifiers a helping hand, you need to keep the butter from gathering in a big glob.

How hot should butter be for hollandaise? ›

Make sure the butter is between 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit (55-60 degrees Celsius). While constantly whisking, add the butter to the sabayon in a steady stream. Add enough butter until you achieve a somewhat thick consistency.

Butter OR Ghee / clarified butter – butter is the fat used in Hollandaise Sauce. For a more concentrated buttery flavour, you can use ghee or clarified butter, if you happen to have either on hand. But there's no need to get it specifically – you'll see in the recipe that I discard the milk solids in the melted butter.

If the butter is too hot, it cooks the egg on contact, also preventing the emulsion. If you add oil too fast, the emulsion breaks. If the egg is too cool, or the butter is too cool, then the yolks also won't emulsify as well. Think of Hollandaise as a sort of hot custard mayonnaise.

Is it safe to eat raw eggs? Although some people eat raw eggs for the high protein value, there is a risk of Salmonella bacteria being present in uncooked eggs. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Salmonella is responsible for 23,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths a year.

If the heat is too high, the egg yolks will curdle and the sauce will become grainy. When a sauce splits, this means that the fat has separated from the egg foam (the sauce has lost its emulsion). The result will look thin, greasy, and lumpy.

When creating a sauce, one common mistake is not allowing the appropriate time for the ingredients to mingle. Some sauces are best fresh like pesto or guacamole because they contain fresh ingredients that break down or oxidize (per America's Test Kitchen). Other sauces require slow cooking to concentrate the flavors.

How do you fix a runny hollandaise? Blenders tend to make runny hollandaise - it's usually because the butter was too cold and hasn't cooked the eggs enough to thicken them. To thicken a runny hollandaise, tip the mixture into a heatproof bowl set over simmering water and whisk over the heat until thickened.