Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio

This is called the mitzvah of הַפְרָשַׁת חַלָּה (hafrashat hallah, separating hallah).

It comes from our parashah:

In ancient times, people would give a portion of their dough to a כֹּהֵן (kohen, priest). It was like תְּרוּמָה (terumah), which were gifts for kohanim in exchange for their work in the בֵּית הַמִּקְדָשׁ (Beit Ha-Mikdash, Temple in Jerusalem). Nowadays, hafrashat hallah generally involves burning the piece of dough instead.

First, you need to be baking a large quantity of dough, using lots of flour. The Shulhan Arukh measures the volume of flour in “eggs,” and says that your recipe should be at least 43 “eggs’” worth of flour (Yoreh Deah 324:1). There are different customs about what this means exactly, but in general it’s understood that your recipe should include at least five pounds of flour in order to say the blessing for hafrashat hallah.

You can do hafrashat hallah if your dough is made from any of these five grains (or a combination): wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye (Mishnah Hallah 1:1).

This mitzvah applies to all dough from these grains, not just bread dough. So you can also perform this mitzvah if you’re baking a large amount of cookies or cake!

After kneading your dough but before you start baking it, break off a piece (a handful works), and recite this blessing:

Then wrap that piece in a couple layers of aluminum foil, toss it in the oven, and let it get too crispy to eat (Mishneh Torah, Bikkurim 5:9)!

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