Hollandaise Sauce - I Did It!

hollandaise sauce

Okay, I watched the movie Julie & Julia, and I was so inspired that I just had to try to make Hollandaise Sauce.

hollandaise sauce

Actually my husband is the magical person on the stove top. I was always the baker. So making sauces kind of frightened me. For encouragement, my sweet hubby went out and bought me a new whisk! The side story is that our old whisk had become a toy for Wyatt, and it was bent into every direction – shows you how much I use a whisk.

So I set out to make Hollandaise Sauce, and I was so sure that I was going to fail that I made it in the morning, without  thinking it would actually be edible. I had to quick cook up something to put it on, so I made and egg, topped it with sauce, and sliced green onion.

My advice to everyone is to go for it! It ended up being not that difficult, and honestly the only part I had to be careful of was the heat. My pan spent more time off the burner than on, and the sauce came out perfect.

So here is Julia Child’s Hollandaise sauce ingredients with my instructions on making it! I used a book from the library called: Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, Essential Techniques And Recipes From A Lifetime Of Cooking, by Julia Child.

Hollandaise Sauce – Master Recipe – About 1 1/2 cups

3 egg yolks
big pinch of salt
1 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbs cold, unsalted butter
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and hot
more salt & freshly ground white pepper to taste

My advice is to prep everything first which takes practically no time. Place 3 egg yolks in a sauce pan. Have salt and pepper ready to go. Squeeze and measure out lemon juice. Place 2 pats (1 tbsp each) of butter on a dish and keep in refrigerator until read to start. Lastly, melt the 2 sticks of butter until hot, then proceed to set all ingredients next to your stove and start making the sauce as follows.

Beat yolks with whisk in sauce for a minute or two, until slightly thickened.

Then whisk in pinch of salt, lemon juice, and one tbsp of cold butter.

Set pan over low heat, whisking constantly, removing pan occasionally so yolks don’t cook too fast.

When they (the yolks) start clinging to whisk, the butter is melted,  and you can see bottom of pan between strokes, remove from heat.

And 2nd tbsp of cold butter and repeat as directed as above.

Then start adding melted butter, a little bit at a time, whisking constantly, removing from heat if needed, and continue until about 1/2 cup of the sauce has thickened. Then you can add the remaining melted butter a bit more quickly and whisk, until the sauce resembles heavy cream.

Taste, and add more salt and pepper if needed.

This sauce needs to be used immediately, within a 1/2 hour. It does not store well, so don’t even think about saving it!!!

I did read on the internet, that you can place the sauce in a bowl over another bowl with warm water until ready to use. This is what I did in order to quickly take the photographs and cook my egg!

Hollandaise Sauce is great over green beans or asparagus, and is a component of Eggs Benedict.

i quick cooked up an egg and topped it with the sauce & green onions!