The Best Hollandaise

Sauce Recipe

 
 
 
 

Making homemade hollandaise sauce is unnecessarily mysterious. It just takes the right recipe, a couple tools and a little patience—things we mostly have. Most simply, hollandaise sauce is made of melted butter, egg yolks, salt and lemon juice. We also like to add freshly cracked pepper and paprika. Whether you're making eggs Benedict at home or just want to drizzle the hollandaise over asparagus: we're here for it. Making this sauce by yourself, in a perfectly quiet kitchen, with nothing else on the stove is simple, but it can quickly become overwhelming outside of that setting. Below are a few of our tips, including knowing it will inevitably sit and get a little chilly and how to fix that.

To us, there are a few key things necessary to a great hollandaise sauce: 1. Use fresh lemon juice liberally. It cuts the fat from the butter and egg yolk, keeping the sauce bright. 2. Make sure the bowl you're using (if you don't have a double boiler) does not touch the steaming water. 3. Low and slow! Whisk the egg yolks on low heat, allowing the steam of the water to gently cook them. You don't want them to scramble. 4. As soon as it really starts to thicken, take it off the heat. It will continue to thicken as it sits. 5. We most often find ourselves pairing hollandaise with some sort of chaotic egg situation, meaning the sauce will sit for longer than we'd like. That's okay! Actually, go ahead and plan for this. Once you're ready to plate, add a few drops of the steaming water leftover and whisk again, tasting for heat and seasoning. You could also add a little more hot butter at the end. Why. Not. — Dak and Ju

 

Ingredients

  • 2 egg yolks

  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

  • ¼ cup butter, melted (½ stick)

  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper, to taste

  • 1 pinch paprika, to taste

  • 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

 

Instructions

  1. In a small / medium sized stainless steel bowl (or top of a double boiler), vigorously whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together until the mixture has doubled in volume. 

  2. Place the stainless steel bowl (or top of the double boiler) over a saucepan of barely simmering water (or bottom of the double boiler). The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water, you just want the emerging steam to lightly heat and cook the egg mixture. This is often where people have a hard time—if you have the heat on too high or the bowl is touching the water, you could make scrambled eggs. Low and slow.

  3. Slowly drizzle the melted butter and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened. It won’t thicken *that* much until you take it off heat. So don’t worry.

  4. Off the heat, add the salt and spices. You’re ready to go! If it’s thickened too much for your liking, you can add a tiny bit of hot water and taste again for seasoning.

Makes 2 servings (about 1/2 cup of sauce)