#811: Know Your Bread
While there is much brouhaha surrounding the purported health advantages of the popular "Ezekiel Bread," there is also much discussion in the halachic realm as to the brachah we make on a grain product that is not prepared in the conventional manner of most breads.
(As an aside, the bread for which this product is named is rooted in a passage in Yechezkel, but the circumstances of the original baking of this bread is not of a positive nature. These associations seem lost on many marketers and consumers of the prophet Ezekiel’s Bread).*
Ezekiel bread contains sprouted grain. There's a discussion in halachah whether we recite the brachah of Hamotzie on a baked product made of a flourless grain.
In the case of Ezekiel Bread, this discussion is actually not relevant. The optimal preparation of sprouted grain products is when the kernel is still partially intact, as most variations of Ezekiel bread utilize a "quasi-sprout" technique, where grains and legumes are soaked rather than fully sprouted. This method involves soaking them in water to soften before grinding into “flour” and preparing the bread dough. Additionally, sometimes the bread contains a small percentage of crushed wheat kernel as well.
Thus, the brachah is unquestionably Hamotzie. According to this criteria as bona fide bread, we must also ascertain that it is baked to the highest required standards of pas yisroel (bread [baked with the participation] of a Jew, see Article #694 for some of these parameters).
However, the brachah acharonah (the after-bracha) is less simply calculated. The ratio of grains—those from the chameishas minei dagan (five species of [noteworthy] grains—wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt) versus other types would determine the volume of Ezekial bread that would need to be consumed to qualify for Birchas Hamazon (the Grace after Meals—see Halachah #493 for details.)
*The halachic implication of the source for this bread is found in the Gemara regarding using such bread for eruv chatzeros ([creating] a mixed, i.e. common property—see Halachah # 819). The prophet Yechezkel's bread was considered unfit for normal human consumption, to be eaten only during times of hunger; according to Rashi, it can't be classified as lechem anashim (bread for people). The Gemara discusses which aspect of the “recipe” deems it unfit —the ingredients used in preparation or the particular method of roasting which Yechezkel was instructed to use (the details are found in Yechezkel 4:9). While the Gemara is inconclusive on this matter, many poskim rule that Ezekiel Bread, or bread made with similar ingredients, may not be used for an eruv chatzeros.