This simple 2 minute easy hollandaise sauce is delicious and stress free. You can put your whisk away!!! This hollandaise sauce is delicious and using my method it is easy to make at home!
Use it for eggs benedict, as a dip for vegetables or a pour over sauce for steak or chicken. A rich and buttery sauce with the mild tang of lemon juice.
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How to make Easy Hollandaise
My method uses an immersion blender (also known as a stick blender emulsion blender, wand blender, or hand blender) to combine the eggs, lemon and butter.
This means you don’t have to spend 10 minutes whisking and you don’t have to worry about your hollandaise sauce splitting. YUP! You don’t have to worry about it splitting as my method ensure it won’t happen.
But why does hollandaise sauce split?
There are a few reasons why sauces split but for hollandaise it is usually one of two:
The melted butter was added too quickly. If the butter is added too quickly, the egg, which is what emulsifies the sauce, cannot do it’s job and you find your butter just puddles at the bottom of the bowl.
When we emulsify something we are trying to combine oil and water, if the process doesn’t work you find the two layers will seperate. (In traditional methods you can add a small amount of boiling water and this will help to bring the sauce back together)
The hollandaise sauce gets too hot. If the temperature of your sauce gets too high, the eggs start to coagulate, i.e you are starting to make scrambled egg.
Once that happens the eggs cannot work as an emulsifier and your sauce splits. (In traditional methods if this occurs it is almost impossible to rectify. Sometimes plunging the bowl into ice water and whisking like a crazy person can help)
BUT DON’T WORRY!!!
With my method you don’t have to worry about either of these!
I use a stick blender, which combines the butter and egg really quickly. Imagine The Flash is whisking the hollandaise. This speed and a slow but constant flow of butter doesn’t allow the eggs and butter to seperate.
I ensure the sauce is never above 110ºF, which stops the chance of the egg scrambling. To do this the eggs and lemon are combined with the stick blender. The friction here warms the egg yolks up. Then you add the melted butter straight from the pan/microwave. This has enough heat to thicken the sauce, but not enough to scramble the eggs.
Plus because everything happens so quickly thanks to the stick blender, you get easy hollandaise sauce in 2 minutes! So nothing has time to cool down and therefore doesn’t needed heating back up.
What are the ingredients in hollandaise sauce?
Hollandaise sauce uses simple ingredients to make something extra special. You can see the ingredients in the photo above.
- eggs
- lemon
- butter
A pinch of cayenne or pepper is usually added but even without that your hollandaise will be amazing! Creamy, thick and lemony. (please use fresh lemons the flavor is so much nicer than the plastic stuff in a bottle)
What butter to use when making hollandaise sauce
My recipe for easy hollandaise sauce calls for unsalted butter and then adds additional salt. Which seems odd but the salt content of salted butter varies so much. And too much salt in your hollandaise can seriously ruin a meal!
So my preferred method is to use unsalted butter and then salt the sauce.
BUT! On any given day you won’t usually find unsalted butter in my house, so if I suddenly get the urge for hollandaise I will use salted butter. It will still work and still be super easy.
Just don’t add any additional salt until the hollandaise sauce is finished and you have tasted it.
Will hollandaise keep in the fridge?
The short answer is yes, your hollandaise will keep in the fridge for 2 days. BUT it is very hard to reheat hollandaise.
I have had success by placing the jug into a bowl of boiling water and then after a couple of minute using the immersion blender to re-blend the sauce and distribute the heat.
But it doesn’t always work perfectly.
Try spreading cold hollandaise on toast and topping with a poached egg. It isn’t quite egg benedict but it is good!
What can hollandaise sauce be used on?
- The classic Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine.
- Dip your favourite steamed veg into it. Asparagus and roasted broccoli work very well.
- Use as a sauce for artichoke leaves.
- Serve with boiled waxy potatoes as an alternative to aioli.
- Add an extra dash of lemon juice and pour over salmon.
- Pour over a fresh spinach and smoked salmon salad.
- Add extra pepper and serve with seared swordfish and fries. (unlike Gordon Ramsey I like swordfish and hollandaise)
- Pour over a baked potato instead of the usual melted butter.
- Leftover hollandaise solidifies. I rather enjoy that spread over hot toast 😳
Enjoy x
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RECIPE – Easy Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
We don’t suggest scaling this recipe down, it makes it very hard to mix.
- 1 stick unsalted butter (see note 1)
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp salt (see note 1)
- Pinch of pepper – cayenne/white/black all work
- 4 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
You will need a immersion blender (also called stick blender, wand blender, hand blender) for this recipe.
- Place the butter in a small pan and melt it over a low heat. (Don't allow the butter to brown and turn off the heat as soon as the butter is just melted.) (see note 2)
- Whilst the butter is melting, put the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt (if using) and pepper into a measuring jug that the head of your immersion blender fits into. (see note 3)
- Blend the egg yolk mixture for a minute, until it lightens in colour and is well combined.
- Keeping the blender in the jug, and with it running on the slowest setting, very slowly drizzle the hot melted butter over the egg mixture. (see note 4)
- As the sauce combines move the blender up through the sauce. (see note 5)
- Check the sauce, it should be slightly lemony and lightly seasoned.
- You can now add extra lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Add as required and give it a quick blend to combine.
- This is best served immediately but if that isn’t possible place the jug in a bowl of body temperate water for up to an hour.
Notes
- If using salted butter, omit the salt from the recipe.
- You can melt the butter in a microwave or on the stove top.
- You need to put the eggs in a measuring jug, also called a large volume measuring cup.
- You need to slowly add the butter, otherwise your sauce will be runny.
- As you add the butter lift the stick blender up through the sauce and then move it back down through the sauce.
Nutrition
Simple 2 Minute Easy Hollandaise Sauce Anecdote
(aka my recipe ramble for those who love the waffle)
Have you ever seen a TV chef make a hollandaise sauce? It is amazing to watch the eggs and butter come together to form a glorious pale yellow sauce. But the effort! Now I don’t mind effort in the kitchen, I will happily spend a few hours cooking a meal, but the effort to make a hollandaise sauce isn’t time, it’s physical effort. And that isn’t something I often embrace 😉 They whisk and whisk and whisk away; their arm muscles get a serious workout. I have tried it and I get arm ache within a minute!
Aside from the effort there is the constant worry that the sauce will split and everything will have to be thrown away!
Nope!!! Traditional hollandaise sauce is a non-starter for me, I am just not the arm aching, food throwing away kind of cook. So I have come up with the most perfect easy hollandaise sauce and there isn’t a whisk in sight.
I love this method so much, I show everyone!!!!!!
I even made it for some friends whilst a little drunk at the end of a party. Me and a few friends standing around a jug, cheering as the sauce came together and then reaching for bread sticks and lettuce leaves to eat the sauce we had made! I KNOW!!!! Parties at my house are so much fun 😉
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Julie says
So in your notes you say you take the butter right from the microwave, but in the instructions the microwave isn’t mentioned at all. And then you say to pour the sauce OVER the butter, but again in the notes talk about the butter being added to fast. 🤷♀️ I’m assuming you can use the microwave or stove, and that you are actually pouring the butter over the sauce, so I’m going to try it that way, but just wanted to pass along that this was confusing to me in case it is to anyone else.
Claire McEwen says
Hi Julie,
The notes in the recipe say you can use the microwave or the stove top to melt the butter. Both will work, I will update the blurb at the top of the recipe so it mentions the microwave as well as the stove top.
With adding the butter, the instructions say to keep the blender in the jug and pour over butter. So you would need to pour the butter over the egg mixture. I hope that makes it clearer 😀