DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 690 KB)
What Beracha Does One Recite on Pita Chips?

One of the snacks commonly sold today is toasted bread chips. The chips are made with the same ingredients as bread – flour and water, with a bit of seasoning – but they are baked until they are dry, hard and crunchy. Should we regard these chips as a snack, similar to pretzels and kaak, such that their Beracha should be "Mezonot," or are they considered just like bread, and require "Ha’mosi"?

There is a general rule that once bread is baked, the bread retains its status of "Ha’mosi" thereafter. If a person puts a piece of bread in the toaster to make it crunchy, it nevertheless retains its formal Halachic status of bread and requires "Ha’mosi." As opposed to snacks like kaak, which from the outset are baked into crunchy snacks, most pita chips and the like are baked as ordinary bread, and then broken into small pieces and baked again until they become crunchy. Since the chips were initially baked as bread, they require "Ha’mosi" even though they were subsequently baked a second time. This is the ruling of Hacham Ovadia Hedaya (1890-1969), in his work Yaskil Abdi (vol. 1, Orah Haim 9).

Although there may be some companies that produce the chips differently, and therefore each company’s procedure needs to be determined, the vast majority of pita chips are first made as ordinary bread and then baked again, so their Beracha is "Ha’mosi."

Summary: Although pita chips are dry and crunchy like snacks, they nevertheless require "Ha’mosi," as they are generally first baked as ordinary bread.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Is It Permissible To Put Flowers Into Water On Shabbat
Observation on the Melacha of Zorea
Hanukah: The Torah Reading
Hanukah – Lighting Hanukah Candles on Friday Afternoon
Chanukah- If One Forgot to Light
Chanukah Halachot for Women
Chanukah- Lighting the Menorah for Students Studying Abroad
Hanukah – Eulogies, Mourning, Fasting and Visiting Cemeteries
Hanukah: How to Prepare an Oil Menorah
The Procedure for Lighting the Hanukah Candles
Hanukah-The Proper Time to Light the Menorah
Hanukah – Should Hanukah Candles be Lit at a Minyan in an Office?
Hanukah: If the Candles Blew Out After Lighting
Chanukah- If A Person Missed A Night of Lighting The Menorah
Chanukah- Is It Permissible to Use Electric Light and Wax Covered Wicks for the Menorah?
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found