As a general rule, dough intended for baking is thick, since it is meant to become a baked grain product. By contrast, batter prepared for cooking – such as porridge or soup that contains a large amount of flour – never takes on the status of bread, and therefore one is not obligated to separate ḥalla from it. For the same reason, even if one eats enough of it to constitute a full meal, he recites mezonot and al ha-miḥya.
Sometimes, however, liquid batter is poured into a pot, baking pan, or frying pan and gradually sets into a baked item, such as pancakes. Once it takes on the form of bread – that is, the form of a baked grain product – one must separate ḥalla from it. If one establishes a meal on it, he recites ha-motzi and Birkat Ha-mazon. Only once the batter has finished baking does the obligation of ḥalla take effect; until then, it remains a batter rather than bread dough (Sefer ha-Teruma; Torat ha-Aretz I 4:92–93). However, even after baking, one separates ḥalla only if the baked items contain enough flour to reach the ḥalla threshold. Since a single pancake or similar item generally does not contain that amount on its own, ḥalla becomes relevant only when several such items are combined, as explained above, section 7.
This is the rule for pancakes, laḥuḥ, blintzes, Belgian waffles, and similar foods. When the batter bakes into a product with real thickness – the kind of thickness created as it rises during baking – it has the form of a baked grain product. One must therefore separate ḥalla from it, and if one eats enough of it to constitute a full meal, he recites ha-motzi and Birkat Ha-mazon. If, however, the batter is made especially thin, the finished product does not have the form of a baked good; one does not separate ḥalla from it, and even if one eats enough of it to constitute a full meal, he recites mezonot and al ha-miḥya. When it is uncertain whether the items are ordinary baked products or especially thin ones, one separates ḥalla without a berakha.[14]
[14]. The Gemara states: “Truknin are subject to ḥalla… trita is exempt from ḥalla” (Berakhot 37b). In both cases, the food begins as a liquid batter. The difference is that truknin becomes a thick baked product, while trita becomes a thin one. Rosh explains that trita is exempt because it lacks the form of bread. This is also the ruling of SA YD 329:5 and SA OḤ 168:15.
The practical question, then, is how to identify the “form of bread” in foods made from liquid batter, such as pancakes, crepes, laḥuḥ, blintzes, and Belgian waffles. Many authorities distinguish between thick and thin products: when the batter bakes into something with real thickness, one must separate ḥalla; when it becomes especially thin, one does not separate ḥalla from it. Some attempted to define this threshold numerically, ruling that one does not separate ḥalla from a product less than 3 mm thick, while one must separate ḥalla from a product thicker than 7 mm (Shulḥan Arukh ha-Mekutzar YD 170:19). Others suggested judging by the baking process itself: if the batter becomes ready to eat almost immediately after being poured into the pan, it lacks the form of bread, and one does not separate ḥalla from it; if it is thick enough that baking takes several minutes, it has the form of bread, and one must separate ḥalla from it (Tevu’at ha-Sadeh 5:14).
It seems, however, that these are only external indicators, not practical standards for halakhic ruling. People cannot reasonably be expected to measure the thickness of a pancake, and baking time depends greatly on the heat of the pan. Therefore, as a rule, one must separate ḥalla from these baked batter products. Only in unusual cases does one not separate ḥalla from them: when they are made so thin that they no longer appear to have the form of bread – that is, the form of a baked product. This also accords with the example commonly given by the poskim for exempt trita: a wafer, meaning a single very thin layer of an ordinary wafer, crisp because of its thinness and dryness. A Belgian waffle, by contrast, is thick, and therefore one must separate ḥalla from it.
