Halachos of Daily Living

Can one satisfy the minhag of
consuming dairy food on Shavuos by eating cheesecake after Kiddush on
Shavuos morning?

The Darchei Teshuva recommends this method to fulfill the minhag of
eating dairy on Shavuos. However, there is an issue which needs to be dealt
with.

 The halacha is that one
can fulfill the requirement of Kiddush b’makom se’udah (Kiddush in
the place of one’s meal) by eating at least a k’zayis of Mezonos food
following Kiddush (see MB 273:21). The problem is that many
types of cheesecake have very little flour, and one does not typically consume
a k’zayis of the dough or flour part of a slice of such
cheesecake in the requisite period of k’dei achilas p’ras –
which according to Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”lwould
be under 3 minutes (Igros Moshe 4:41). Thus, cheesecake with minimal
dough/flour content would not seem to qualify as sufficient for the amount
of Mezonos food one would have to eat after Kiddush.

Additionally, even though the bracha rishona for
cake and pie is Mezonos, there is an exception when the flour or dough part
of these desserts serves merely to hold the filling or fruit in place and is
not intended to provide flavor (OC 208:2). Some cheesecakes are virtually all
cheese, and they have a paper-thin layer of tasteless dough which merely keeps
the cheese in place. This situation would warrant reciting a “Shehakol”
and would likely not enable one to fulfill the requirement of Kiddush
b’makom se’udah (see OC 208:9 and MB ibid. #45).

Should one wish to have cheesecake after morning Kiddush,
the solution would be to either purchase a cheesecake that has sufficient
dough/flour to eat a k’zayis worth within the
shiur of k’dei achilas p’ras, or to also eat, along with theMezonos or Shehakol cheesecake,
another Mezonos food (e.g. cookies, pastry, or cake), making
sure to have a k’zayis of the Mezonos food
in a period of k’dei achilas p’ras, as above.