11. Bracha on Pumpernickel bread – Whole kernel rye bread

  1. Pumpernickel bread – Whole kernel rye bread:

What is it: Pumpernickel bread is made from coarsely ground whole rye. [Regular rye bread uses refined flour and is lighter, with a more mild taste.] Pumpernickel bread typically has a mix of rye flour and often wheat flour as well. However, traditional pumpernickel uses just coarse rye meal, which is just ground rye without refining it into flour. It may appear like a black brick, very dense and heavy. This is a typical “bread” from Northern Europe and is made of 100% Rye, water, yeast, malt extract, salt.

The law – Pumpernickel bread with five grain flour: If the Pumpernickel bread also has five grain flour in its ingredients [as it typically does] and can therefore be cut into regular slices of bread and resembles the form of bread, then its blessing is Hamotzi and Birchas Hamazon irrelevant of its thickness and density.

The law – Pumpernickel bread with legume flour: If the whole kernel rye bread has legume flour and not five grain flour in its ingredients, then seemingly it retains the same status as all boiled grains, which is not Hamotzi, but rather Mezonos and Al Hamichya [if one consumes a Kezayis of the rye within Achilas Peras].

The law – Only Whole kernel rye bread – No flour: If the pumpernickel bread has no flour and only pieces of rye, then since it cannot cut into regular slices of bread and does not resemble the form of bread, then its blessing is Mezonos and Al Hamichyah, just like oatmeal porridge.

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