Rawkinlocs- I need steel cut oat advice!

[rawererin]

how long do you soak these if they're going to be in granola?
are they hard to digest?
can I buy just any type or is there a specific brand?
thanks!

[Rawkinlocs]

Hi Erin,

Well, the thing about groats is that, if you don't own a flaker to roll/flatten them, even if you soak them, once you dehydrate them they're gonna get very hard after drying. Not like buckwheat that swells and then becomes light, crunchy and easier to chew once dehydrated. The oat groats just get hard again like other grains do once they're dried.

What I would do is grind them first if you don't have a grain flaker. I mean grind dry groats, not soaked ones...and then add the ground up groats to your grawnola mixture...no soaking necessary after that.

OR...you can soak them and then process them in the food processor until they are like a porridge consistency and then add to your mixture of other items for your grawnola. But yeah, I bought a grain flaker a couple of years ago when this one company was discontinuing them and selling them for under $25. But since then, the cheapest I've seen them is like in the $50-80 range depending on the brand and where you get it.