Eggs Benedict Recipe | The Best Hollandaise Sauce Ever!

It's easy to see why Eggs Benedict is ranked in the top 10 breakfasts in the world and that's exactly what we're going to be making in today's video. It's easy, it's cheap and it's seriously delicious. Please sit back, relax and enjoy. Alright guys, starting us off let's place a small saucepan filled half full of water onto our stovetop and add in one and a half tablespoons or 30 milliliters of white vinegar which is going to be for our poached eggs. Then place this onto a high heat and bring it to a simmer. Place a small saucepan onto your stovetop as well and add in 300 grams or 10.5 ounces of unsalted butter. Place this over a medium heat and allow the butter to fully melt. Once melted allow it to cook for four minutes which will then cause some of the milk solids to float to the top. This can then be taken off the heat and then with a spoon we're just going to gently remove the milk solids being careful not to remove too much of the clarified butter. The reason we're removing this is because when making hollandaise we want this to be silky smooth and these fats or milk fats can potentially split the hollandaise or cause it to be slightly clumpy which is definitely not what we want. Once that's done remove the saucepan from the stovetop and carefully pour the clarified butter into any container you may have being sure to leave behind the milk fats which will be sitting underneath the clarified butter. If you didn't know this now has a higher smoke point as we've removed the milk fat which is what makes butter burn so not only is this what is needed for hollandaise this is also fantastic for anything that you like to cook in butter. Now with the milk fats left over I know some people like to use this for popcorn and other things like indian breads but it is okay to get rid of this if you don't have any use for it. Now back to the poaching water which is at a low simmer this can be taken off the heat for the time being then place a large bowl on top of the saucepan to create a bain marie or double boiler just make sure that the bowl is not touching the water. To make our hollandaise add in three large free range egg yolks if this one decides to get out of the bowl along with one tablespoon or 20 milliliters of white vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice. Hold the bowl firmly with a tea towel so you don't burn your hand then using a whisk vigorously whisk this up until it forms thick ribbons. The way this works is we're using the heat from the saucepan to slowly heat the egg yolks. Naturally egg proteins are long molecules that are curled up into a ball and when you heat them these proteins uncurl and form bonds with other proteins. When cooking eggs like this we just want to heat it enough to cause the proteins to uncoil but if we don't keep this moving hence the vigorous whisking the yolks will scramble and we will have to start this again. As for the vinegar or lemon juice this adds a nice acidic touch to the flavor and also makes this unfriendly to bacteria growth so there's no need to worry if you are concerned with consuming eggs. Okay so after two minutes of whisking and this has formed thick ribbons we can then remove the bowl and turn the heat back onto high bringing the water to a boil. Next grab yourself a damp tea towel and shape it into a circle to which we can then place on the bowl and this will help stop the bowl from moving around too much. Now whilst continuously whisking slowly pour in the clarified butter that we made before to create an emulsion and this is what's going to make our hollandaise silky smooth but this part we do have to add the clarified butter in very slowly to help the bonds form together and adding it too quickly will cause it to split. If you do happen to split this it can be fixed by adding a splash of water and that will help things come back together. I also want to say that most recipes you see for hollandaise are quite particular on how much butter you add but this really does depend on the fat content in the yolks you use. Some are more fatty which will require less butter than others but if you stick to three egg yolks to 280 grams or 9.8 ounces of butter you won't have any problems. Now once you've acquired a thick but pourable consistency this then can be checked for seasoning before placing over some plastic wrap to stop a skin from forming and then we can put this aside until we're ready to serve. Another way to make hollandaise is in a blender or food processor using the same recipe which is three egg yolks, one tablespoon or 20 milliliters of white vinegar or lemon juice and one teaspoon or five grams of sea salt flakes. Place on the lid then turn this machine onto the highest setting and process for one minute to aerate the egg yolks. Next with 280 grams or 9.8 ounces of the clarified butter we did earlier slowly pour this in the same way we did before and make sure the butter is not boiling but it is slightly hot. If you do have a blender or food processor this way is a lot easier than the other method as the hollandaise is consistently mixed which in return makes this seriously silky smooth and also cuts out the fuss of whisking non-stop for two minutes. Once all the clarified butter is incorporated this can then be turned off, remove the bowl from the stand and pour out that deliciously silky smooth hollandaise into a bowl or if you want to you can just leave it in the blender bowl to save dishes. Once that's done we're then left with this hollandaise sauce which has the most perfect consistency and is not runny which unfortunately I see too much these days. Then like before place over some plastic wrap to stop a surface skin from forming and pop this aside for the time being. Okay so going back to our poaching water which is now boiling we can create a vortex which will help shape our eggs then add in as many eggs as you'd like to use for this recipe and poach these for two and a half minutes for soft poached. There's lots of controversy when poaching eggs and everyone does it differently but I can assure you this way works and for the people that will say that this is wrong this is how many professional restaurants or cafes will poach your eggs. Now in the meantime place a pan onto your stove top over a high heat and add in half a tablespoon or 10 milliliters of olive oil which is optional then add in four or six pieces of ham or bacon and I'm throwing out the rule of overcrowding the pan for this recipe mainly just because I want to heat this up and only get a little bit of color on it. I'm also only going to cook this for one and a half minutes on each side if you wanted to this can be placed into an oven for eight minutes set on 180 degrees celsius or 350 degrees fahrenheit. After two and a half minutes we can then remove our poached eggs placing them onto a plate lined with kitchen cloth or a tea towel to drain and these right here are soft poached eggs so if you wanted firm eggs just poach these for five minutes instead. Once the eggs are out and the ham or bacon is exactly how you like it let's then remove this placing it onto a plate for a minute before serving. Now this part is optional but to the pan add in 180 grams or 6.3 ounces of baby spinach and saute this for one and a half to two minutes or until wilted and soft. Whilst it's cooking add in half a teaspoon or 2.5 grams of sea salt flakes as well as one teaspoon or 10 cracks of black pepper for a nice seasoning then continue to cook this down until it's nice and soft and wilted which can then be removed from the stovetop. Now lastly slice two english muffins in half using a sharp bread knife and obviously you can do more than two if you'd like to then drop these bad boys into a toaster and get these nice and golden. To serve this up place down the toasted english muffins then come through with the sauteed baby spinach placing it on top if you're using it. Next add on the golden ham or bacon or if you wanted to you can use smoked salmon to turn this into eggs royale or leave it plain for eggs Florentine. Proceed by adding on the deliciously soft poached eggs or hard eggs if that's what you prefer then come through with the silky smooth hollandaise and cover the eggs with as much or as little as you'd like. We can then top this with a little bit of roughly chopped parsley for a bit of contrast, crack over some black pepper for a nice pop in flavor or you can add a pinch of cayenne pepper then how good does this look! We've got the crunchy english muffins topped with the sauteed spinach, the ham, the poached eggs and of course that amazing hollandaise. This then leaves us with the best part and that is we can then pop open these eggs to get that yolk oozing and finally we can then dig in! So there we have it, this recipe right here serves two to four people and can easily be doubled, tripled and so on and I deliberately made more hollandaise for this recipe just because it's the best part. Unfortunately you can't store or reheat this just because the hollandaise sauce will break and split but I can guarantee you'll eat it all before then anyway so there's no need to worry about that. If you enjoyed this video be sure to smash that like button, it really does help my channel out and consider subscribing along with hitting that bell notification next to it so you never miss when I upload. Thanks for watching everyone, stay safe and enjoy!