Hollandaise – The Clincher

The final part of our eggs Benedict is the hollandaise sauce! In my opinion, eggs Benedict would not be nearly as good without this key part because the creaminess and richness from the sauce adds beautiful flavor to the lightly poached eggs and dense English muffins. Keep in mind that when you’re making this sauce, it doesn’t keep its quality at most 2 hours after it’s made, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients:

·      3 large egg yolks

·      1 tbsp water

·      ¼ tsp salt

·      ½ tsp ground cayenne

·      3-4 tbsp lemon juice

·      8 oz cold unsalted butter

·      ¼ tsp sugar

Whisk the egg yolks, water, salt, and ¼ tsp cayenne in a medium saucepan. Put the pan over low heat and whisk constantly for about 3 minutes. Add a tablespoon of butter every 30 seconds while constantly whisking, and once half of the butter is added, add 1 tbsp of the lemon juice, and then continue adding the butter 1 tbsp at a time until it’s all incorporated. Add the remaining lemon juice, cayenne, and sugar, and whisk for a few minutes, tasting for flavor. Move the sauce to a thermos to keep for UP TO TWO HOURS (no more).

And that’s the last part! To assemble (in case you do not know), place half of an English muffin on a plate, place a couple slices of bacon or Canadian bacon on the muffin, slide a warm poached egg gently on top, and top with some hollandaise sauce. And that’s that! For those of you that are not a fan of runny eggs, you can fry or do sunny-side-up eggs if you must, but the runny poached egg really completes this dish. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do! Bon appetit~