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Time to get it straight once and for all. When do you / do you not make a Brocho on dessert in a meal (where you washed)?

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4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

According to the Sephardim, one is Lechtechila not allowed toto eat cakes or cookies during a meal of bread (Yalkut Yosef, Heleq 3, page 187). He says you must wait until after you finish Birkat HaMazon. EDIT: Because some cakes are Hamotzi and some are Mezonot. This Halacha has a lot of cirumstances. http://www.dailyhalacha.com/displayRead.asp?readID=1571&txtSearch=eating%20cake%20meal See this for more details.

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1  
Prohibited why? Because of a safek in whether a b'racha is required? Or for some other reason? – msh210♦ Nov 30 '11 at 16:28
up vote 2 down vote

Regarding mezonos (mentioned quickly in a comment on a different answer):

Bread is Hamotzi, and therefore one doesn't make a beracha on it since it is included in the Hamotzi at the beginning of the meal. Cake is Mezonos and one would make a beracha on it when it is eaten as dessert.

The question of making a beracha on a mezonos dessert depends on what is considered "Pas/Bread" vs. "Pas Haba BeKisnin/Cake". There are 3 possibilities cited in SH"A (really simplifying here):

  • Sweetened dough
  • Filled dough
  • Hard dough

If the desert you're eating satisfies all three, it is definitely a Mezonos (and not a Hamotzi) and therefore one makes a Mezonos when eaten as dessert. A good example are hamentaschen.

However, if it satisfies only one (possibly even two) of the conditions, no beracha.

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Can you give an example of a desert the satisfies all three? – Bas613 Sep 1 '10 at 2:10
Pie, filled with cherry/blueberry/mousse/etc, and baked with a hard crust, would satisfy all three, and you make a mezonos. – Barry May 30 '11 at 16:35
up vote 3 down vote

According to Sephardi poskim all deserts require their own blessing. In most sephardi homes on shabat they typically strive to bring out something for each of the berakhot(mezunot, eitz, adamah, hakol).

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Mekubal, do Sefardim refer to the brachot as "eitz, adamah, hakol"? That's cool! We Ashkenos call them "haeitz, haadamah, shehakol." As usual, you're using gramatically correct nouns; we're just lifting words out of context. – Shalom Aug 27 '10 at 12:13
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Israeli ones refer to them as such. Native English speaking sephardim... I am not sure. – Rabbi Michael Tzadok Aug 31 '10 at 14:10
Mekubal- you mean after the meal for 100 Berachot. And you also mean to wait until after the meal to eat the cake, right? – Hacham Gabriel Nov 30 '11 at 16:16
up vote 4 down vote

There are a lot of different practices (and I believe a stira in the Mishna Brurah), and it may depend on your practice.

BUT:

Here's what I was told in yeshiva:

Fresh fruit (including "ha'adama fruit" like watermelon and bananas), candy, ice cream -- all get a bracha.

Anything mezonos, anything liquid, cooked fruit -- included with the meal.

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Hamotzi/Bread exempts meal foods. So the question is- is it a meal food? Some exceptions that Shalom mentioned: Many mezonoses are safek hamotzi which you already made (ask your posek). Liquids- the minhag is not to even if it should get a bracha. Some will not make a bracha directly on ice cream since it will melt into a liquid. I argued with a local posek that there's no loss since meikar hadin liquids should get brachos, too, but he wouldn't budge since the minhag is not to make a bracha on a liquid. – YDK Aug 27 '10 at 2:39
There's a Rabbi Frand tape all about the frozen-liquid controversy; I don't know what he concludes, but I picked "yes bracha" for the quick answer above. – Shalom Aug 27 '10 at 12:12

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