Hollandaise sauce is that lovely creamy sauce you have tasted a hundred times on eggs benedict or over a poached salmon.

It is not that difficult to make at all if you remember just a couple of simple rules that are outlined for you below.

The most important - don't let the sauce boil as you are thickening it.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
4 - 8 tablespoons butter, cut or broken into small pieces
pinch cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1 - 2 tablespoons lemon juice or white wine vinegar

Directions:
Put egg yolks in a metal bowl. Sit the bowl over a saucepan filled with cold water. Heat the water, beating the egg yolks constantly with a wire whisk. The water in the pan should not boil and the bowl should stay cool enough to hold with your hand.

Continue beating the yolks constantly until they thicken. The yolks have thickened enough when you begin to see the bottom of the bowl between strokes and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whisk.

Immediately remove the bowl from over the water. Add the butter, in very small pieces, whisking in each pat and allowing it to melt before adding the next. When you are finished, the mixture should be very smooth and light. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve and stir in the seasonings and lemon juice.

If the sauce is too thick, thin it a bit with cold water. Keep in a warm place.

• DO NOT BOIL, or the sauce will curdle!

Hollandaise Sauce Tips  Not rated yet
I don't like vinegar so use lemon juice for starters. Have all of the ingredients on the counter, be sure the butter is melted. I use the electric thingy...