When the subject is Easter eggs, most folks usually are talking about the gaily painted specimens in a basket. Me, I think of holiday brunch, and in particular of eggs Benedict. I think of the rich and indulgent dish of Canadian bacon, sauteed spinach and poached eggs enthroned on an English muffin, the whole kit and caboodle drenched in hollandaise sauce.
Making this winner, however, is no snap. Not only must you time the cooking of the separate ingredients just right, but whipping up the hollandaise – that classic French butter sauce – can be challenging.
Happily, I’ve solved the first problem by rethinking the components so that they can be prepared in advance, then combined and baked together. This required making a few subtle substitutions.
I traded the Canadian bacon for a thin slice of ham, which does double duty as a cup to hold the rest of the ingredients. Likewise, I swapped out the English muffin for croutons, which provide some welcome crunch. Finally, there’s now no need to poach the egg (a scary undertaking all by itself). Instead, it bakes right in the ham cup.
What about that fearsome old hollandaise sauce? In truth, it’s never been a terribly big deal as long as you take your time and pay attention. Over the years I’ve made it every which way, with chunks of whole butter or melted butter or clarified butter, using a double boiler or a saucepan directly over low heat or a blender. But the method laid out in this recipe is my favorite.
The key to making a hollandaise is cooking the eggs just enough so that they thicken (starting around 145 F), but not so much that they curdle (between 165 F and 170 F). The best way to control this process is to put the eggs in a metal bowl set over – but not touching – some barely simmering water and cook them slowly. The lemon juice helps to keep the yolks from curdling, but you’ll also want to keep track of how hot the egg mixture is becoming by sticking your immaculately clean finger into the bowl every couple of minutes. When the egg mixture is quite warm, it’s time to add the butter.
We’re using whole chunks of butter here for a couple reasons. First, whole butter is roughly 15 percent water, and that water helps to keep the sauce from splitting. Second, using whole butter results in a lighter and fluffier finished product than a sauce made with melted or clarified butter. Still, to keep the sauce from splitting, be careful to add the butter just a bit at a time.
What to do if that pesky sauce splits anyway? Dump the mixture into a measuring cup, wash out the bowl, drop in a tablespoon or two of hot water, then slowly add the split sauce to the water, whisking as you go, and watch with triumph as your sauce re-emulsifies.
As noted, this recipe – unlike the classic method – does not require you to pull all of the cooked ingredients out of a hat at the moment of assembly. You can saute the spinach and bake the croutons the day before your brunch. Then, on the morning of the appointed day, you can make the hollandaise up to an hour ahead of time and store it in a wide-mouthed thermos that’s been pre-heated with boiling water. Last step? Add the ingredients to the ham cups. Then, just pop those cups into the oven 20 minutes before it’s time to sit down.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sara Moulton is the host of public television’s “Sara’s Weeknight Meals.” She was executive chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25 years and spent a decade hosting several Food Network shows, including “Cooking Live.” Her latest cookbook is Home Cooking 101.