Blend

Blender Hollandaise Sauce From Eric Ripert

by:
June 19, 2021
4.6
5 Ratings
Blender Hollandaise Sauce From Eric Ripert
Photo by Bobbi Lin
  • Prep time 5 minutes
  • Cook time 3 minutes
  • Serves 2 to 4
Author Notes

Eggs Benedict is a classic recipe beloved by brunch-goers the world over, but most home cooks shy away from it for one reason: Hollandaise sauce. Notoriously difficult to perfect, this mother sauce is an ethereal combination of butter, eggs, and lemon juice that comes together over a double boiler.

That is, unless you use this smart trick from chef Eric Ripert. Ripert instructs us to emulsify all ingredients in a blender pre-warmed with hot water instead of whisking at the stove top. It’s so easy you might be making eggs Benedict every weekend. —Food52

Test Kitchen Notes

Hollandaise is notoriously difficult to execute on its own, but harder still to time its delivery with egg poaching, bread toasting, ham frying, and side-of-fruit slicing.

The sauce in question is a delicate emulsion of egg yolk, melted (sometimes clarified) butter, and an acid (whether lemon or white wine vinegar). As lexicographer John Ayto recorded in The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink, “hollandaise” is French for “Dutch sauce.” The name was given in the 16th century, and the sauce was invented as perfect accompaniment for Dutch asparagus.

But wait—hold on. Reverse, reverse! Let’s revisit the sauce’s components: butter, egg, and an acid. How can it be that two immiscible ingredients (butter is a fat, lemon juice is essentially water) play together so well as to form a singular creamy sauce? The answer lies in egg’s emulsifying, binding powers. Well, the yolk specifically: Egg yolks contain lecithin (Greek for “yolk”!), a substance that attracts both fat and water, and combines them smoothly.

The sauce is heated over a double boiler, and whisked constantly, so as to cook the eggs but not to curdle, or break, the sauce. We know—super finicky. And not something anyone wants to tend to, while also flipping pancakes, squeezing oranges for juice, and crisping bacon.

Enter this truly genius trick from chef Eric Ripert: whipping hollandaise up in a blender. Pre-warming the blender jar is the only finicky (if you can call it that) step, but a totally necessary one: A little heat is important for the sauce to emulsify, and the gentle warmth of the blender will better help the sauce along. —Coral Lee

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 sticks butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper (more, to taste)
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry ground mustard
  • A pinch of white pepper
Directions
  1. Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave until piping hot.
  2. Warm the blender bowl by filling with hot water and then emptying and drying the bowl.
  3. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, cayenne, salt, white pepper and mustard and blend at medium speed. Slowly drizzle in the hot melted butter with the machine still running until emulsified.
Tags:

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • charles
    charles
  • Laura
    Laura
  • FrugalCat
    FrugalCat
  • Dawn
    Dawn
  • Joanne Karohl
    Joanne Karohl

Popular on Food52

11 Reviews

Charlieb
Charlieb April 27, 2022
I made this for dinner and it was delicious. Not only was it tasty, it was relatively easy. This will be my go to recipe in the future.
 
Susanne R.
Susanne R. June 19, 2021
I have been using this method since I first saw it on JuliaChild’s first TV show, over 40 years ago! Bearnaise is made the same way after sautéing the herbs and shallots! Credit where credit is due!
 
Joanne K.
Joanne K. May 24, 2022
Also her proportions seem to make a nicer sauce...another yok and a bit less butter...
 
charles
charles February 27, 2021
I used a blendtec blender to make this, and pulsed at level four. The serving size of this was off. I feel like this serves at least four, and possibly up to six. The process in this recipe worked great, but the flavor was blandish. I think the lemon amount was good but I had to add more salt and spices to make it right.

The best part of this recipe is the ease of making a hollandaise sauce. I think this is a great and easy method to make your own style of hollandaise sauce. Swap out the cayenne for some dill, chives, or whatever you want and make it your own.
 
Laura
Laura November 18, 2019
What size blender are we talking? There's so few ingredients pre-butter, that my Ninja blender didn't even move them around. Did you guys maybe use one of those little bullets or something else?
 
JESSICA
JESSICA April 17, 2021
Laura, You are correct about the size of blender making a difference. I use my stick blender for this and it emulsifies perfectly.
 
Carol M.
Carol M. April 4, 2022
What do you mean by a stick blender? A hand-held emulsifier? Or some type of small blender that fits onto a base?
 
tetianalee
tetianalee April 4, 2022
It’s a handhold immersion blender!
 
FrugalCat
FrugalCat August 22, 2019
Made this last fall for an unusual dinner- we have a friend couple with a firefighter and a nurse. They are always working crazy shifts- night, weekends, 24 hour periods- and we can never get together with them. Plus they miss out on going to brunch. So in a grown- up breakfast for dinner idea, I had them over on a random Monday evening for Eggs Benedict and Bellinis. I made the blender sauce and it was perfect on traditional Benedicts and the smoked salmon ones too. I made Bellinis using baby food peaches and cheap sparkling wine. The empty baby food jar was perfect for storing the leftover smidgen of Hollandaise sauce, too.
 
Dawn
Dawn March 23, 2019
This sauce is soooo simple and tastes amazing! I actually made a 1/2 recipe and it turned out yummy! Try it you and your family will be happy you did!
 
Liz B.
Liz B. January 6, 2019
I've been using this method to make hollandaise for years and it's so easy! I'll gladly take the trade-off of cleaning the blender instead of whisking over a double-boiler. I usually add a couple of dashes of hot sauce (Cholula or similar) instead of cayenne. The hot butter cooks it just enough so the sauce is perfect. Highly recommend.