Transform Your Hollandaise Into A Maltaise Sauce With A Boost Of Orange

Hollandaise sauce is a decadent favorite on any breakfast or brunch menu. The rich, tangy flavor and creamy texture drizzled over a pair of perfectly poached eggs seems irreplaceable. But classic hollandaise has a lesser-known cousin with similar French origins. If you're a hollandaise lover but have always wanted to try mixing up the flavors for a fresh punch, Maltaise sauce may be just what you're looking for.

Maltaise sauce is a French sauce that uses the same base ingredients and techniques as hollandaise but with a twist of sweet, citrusy blood orange. The base of this sauce is a hollandaise, so you'll still need the acid from a squeeze of lemon. Then the flavor gets leveled up with some zest and juice from a couple of beet-red blood oranges. Just be sure to blanch the zest to tenderize it and reduce the blood orange juice to avoid a finished sauce that's too loose and liquidy.

You can use Maltaise sauce on a variety of dishes, and it naturally makes a wonderful accompaniment to anything you might put hollandaise on. Eggs Benedict is an obvious one. Serve it with a side of fresh citrus — including blood orange — to complement the flavors. Even a dash of this sauce drizzled over some eggs, hash browns, and maple bacon takes a basic breakfast and elevates it to a decadent treat.

But don't stop at breakfast: Use your Maltaise sauce with any meal. It works especially well with vegetables like asparagus or roasted potatoes. While a Maltaise sauce is tasty with a fresh filet of salmon, try pairing it with a white fish, like cod, for more of a color contrast and the same tasty flavors. When concocting your pairings, just remember that you have a touch of added sweetness in this sauce compared to traditional hollandaise, thanks to the blood orange juice.