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The Hollandaise That Almost Wasn't

I am highly suggestible.  Pretty much anytime I see something on TV or in a movie I want it.  Like the Snuggie, or the Sham-Wow, or, in this case, Eggs Benedict.

I think there are a couple tricky parts to making Eggs Benedict.  The first is getting your Hollandaise to the right consistency, thick and creamy, but not custard.  The second is timing everything right so your english muffins, ham or canadian bacon, eggs, and Hollandaise are all ready at the same time.  This morning was a fail on both.

There are two schools of thought on making Hollandaise.  One is to whisk your egg yolk and lemon juice in a double boiler and then emulsifying with the hot melted butter.  The other is to use a blender, which is what I did today.

Since I was just cooking for the two of us, I decided to use the immersion blender so I wouldn't lose half my Hollandaise to the blender blades.  I found a recipe online and scaled it down to one egg yolk and 3 Tablespoons of butter.


In this picture you can see what the first problem is.  There was such a low volume of sauce that it didn't really reach the blender blades, as a result it didn't get whipped enough to thicken.  I tried warming it in a small saucepan of water, but that didn't do the trick either.  I ultimately ended up adding another egg yolk and a couple Tablespoons of butter, which made more than we needed, but worked perfectly.

While I was dealing with the Hollandaise, the rest of the meal was ready and waiting and getting kind of cold.  I didn't master the timing this time around, but everything was delicious in the end.  


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