Practically No Fail Hollandaise Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

3 egg yolks
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation

The list of ingredients are what is the basic recipe. Melt the butter ahead of time to cool slightly and use something like a microwave safe measuring cup or bowl, makes it much easier to pour with a handle. In a heavy bottom pan on a low setting, put the 3 egg yolks with the water and fresh lemon juice in pan. Whisk together while heating up. When it starts to get \"custardy\" (sauce sticks to the back of the spoon and you can start to see the bottom of the pan from whisk strokes), take off heat and start adding the melted butter in a slow stream while whisking until completely incorporated into the egg yolks.
NOTES: You can use bottled lemon juice, but fresh will make a difference like you never knew! You can multiply for larger groups. I have a good rule of thumb that works for me that for every stick of butter, it will serve generously two people. Also, keep the heat low! If you see the yolks starting to curdle, you have it too high! It does require alot of whisking.
The reason this works so well is that the basic principal of Hollandaise is to incorporate one stick of butter for every egg yolk. With the extra egg yolk, it never seems to fall apart. I will say this also, I have better results with the flavor of the sauce using one salted and one unsalted sticks of butter.
Uses are on Eggs Benedict, asparagas, artichokes.