Hafrashas Challah - Wheat Starch
QUESTION: If I make dough using wheat starch instead of flour, must challah be taken?
ANSWER: The main component in a grain of wheat is the starch. Sefer V’zos Haberacha (22:4) writes that the beracha for bread made from wheat starch, even when the gluten is mostly removed, is still Hamotzi. Since the halachos of hamotzi and hafrashas challah are interconnected, it therefore follows that dough made from wheat starch is obligated in challah.
Some companies sell gluten-free flour that is made up of wheat starch and a mix of other flours that are not from the five grains (such as potato or tapioca). Often the amount of wheat starch in these mixtures is less than 50%. In this case, one should separate challah but without a beracha. Even if one were to make a 10 lbs. batch of dough (which would then contain 5 lbs. of wheat starch), one would still not recite a beracha. This is because according to some Rishonim (Ramban, Hilchos Challah 32a), one is not obligated in challah if the wheat is the minority. Although we still require taking challah, since it is a matter of dispute, a beracha should not be said.
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