Do these need to be crushed prior to the steeping process?
Flaked grains do not need to be crushed.
In fact, crushing them may clog the knurls on some mills and most homebrew stores ask that you do not crush flaked grains in their mills.
Depending on the recipe, it’s usually best to steep these with some diastatic malt such as 2-Row, 6-Row, Pilsner, etc… (that is to say, malt which has the enzymes to convert its own starches and the starches of the flaked grain).
