Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

Vegan Hollandaise Sauce
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 - 2/3 cup reserved soaking liquid (from the cashews)
6 whole white peppercorns, crushed
1 Tablespoon minced shallot
3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1-2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
cayenne pepper, to taste
black salt/kala namak or regular salt, to taste (black salt provides an eggy flavor)
splash of butter-flavored olive oil (if you haven't already you have to taste it - it's unbeleiveable and completely dairy-free!)
dash of hot sauce, if desired
For Béarnaise sauce: add chopped fresh tarragon (about one Tablespoon) at the very end; stir in by hand, do not process

Cover the cashews with water and soak for at least one hour. If you want to make the sauce immediately, use boiling water or even boil the cashews for a few minutes. If you plan ahead, the cashews can be soaked in water overnight. The longer the better - the cashews need to become soft to purée and form a nice cashew cream - the basis of this sauce. RESERVE THE SOAKING LIQUID!
Place the peppercorns, shallot, and vinegar in a small saucepan over low heat and reduce by half. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, reserving the liquid and discarding the solids. 

Place the cashews along with 1/2 cup of the liquid in a food processor and process until very smooth and creamy. It is kind of like making a smooth nut butter - you want no chunks of nuts and a texture similar to heavy cream as an end product. It may take awhile, scrape down the sides as necessary. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth, tasting and adjusting seasoning as necessary, or adding more soaking water as needed. Stir in the tarragon by hand for a Béarnaise sauce.
Serve on crackers, toast, asparagus, broccoli, or make a vegan version of Eggs Benedict. Makes about one cup of sauce.

I have never been a huge fan of the flavor of hollandaise sauce, and never enjoyed making it either - in fact, I have failed at making it many times. This vegan version is fool-proof, the food processor does all the mixing for you, and you don't have to worry about the sauce splitting. Temperature is not important either - all the ingredients are mixed at room temperature, and then if you'd like your sauce warm, gently heat it on the stovetop or in the microwave. The sauce keeps well and can be made in advance - just double-check for taste and consistency before serving. Of course this sauce isn't exactly like hollandaise, but considering it is trying to mimic the taste of non-vegan butter and egg yolks, it does a pretty decent job. The key is the cashew cream - it provides all the fat and richness normally given by the butter. I actually prefer it to traditional hollandaise sauce. 

Hollandaise Sauce

As someone who has been a lover of cooking and food for years, I have never made a hollandaise sauce. As far as I can remember, I have never even tasted a hollandaise sauce - either real or from a package. It's not a common household dish and I don't often eat at many high-end restaurants. It also tends to be offered very limitedly - reserved for things like Eggs Benedict and grilled asparagus. So, not personally knowing how this sauce was supposed to look or taste aside from textbook explanations, I dived into my first attempt making it.

Hollandaise sauce served on an English muffin.

I made a reduction of crushed peppercorns and shallots in some vinegar, reducing the mixture by half. I kept this warm, but not too warm.

Next I clarified my own butter by slowly melting, then boiling a pound of butter to remove the milk solids and leave only pure butterfat. I kept this warm, but not too warm.

Then I began with my egg yolks, continuously whipping them with a little water over a double boiler until they were pale yellow and thick.

Next, the moment of truth and the trickiest part - slowly but continuously whip the warm clarified butter into the egg yolks, beginning only a drop at a time, and speeding up only when the emulsion begins to form.

This was all going quite well up to this point - the sauce was smooth, pale yellow, and thick, just like the descriptions. But suddenly, after adding another drop of butter, the sauce just completely split on me, as hollandaise often does. It happened so fast, and went from such a pretty looking sauce to a curdled mess.

Broken hollandaise sauce looks like a curdled, grainy mess.

Despite my attempts to rescue it - depending on whether your sauce split because it was too hot or too cold, sometimes a drop of cold water may be added or a fresh egg yolk may be whipped in to save it, it was past the point of no return. I seasoned it to taste with fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper anyway, and discovered the taste was still excellent and rich and buttery, but the sauce didn't have that velvety, coat the tongue texture it was supposed to.

So what went wrong? Hollandaise sauce is very technical and there are so many variables.
Was the reduction too hot, too cold, reduced too much, or not reduced enough?
Was the clarified butter too hot, too cold, or not properly clarified and unstable?
Were the egg yolks whipped too little, too much, too quickly, or heated too much?
Was the butter added too quickly, or was too much butter added?
Was it the fact I did not have a stainless steel bowl and had to substitute glass?

Successful hollandaise sauce is thick, smooth, and velvety.

I may never know. What I do know, is my second attempt, sadly, turned out worse. I think this time either the egg yolks became too hot during cooking over the double boiler, or the bowl I used was too big and caused the eggs to overcook. I wasn't overly fond of my first taste of hollandaise sauce, now I am the type of person who has no problem eating rich sauces by the spoonful. But I don't much like the slightly sour flavor hollandaise imparts. After two failed attempts at making it, I think I dislike hollandaise sauce even more. Maybe one day I will perfect the art of making a perfect hollandaise.