Hi John,

Yes, it will work with steel cut. The sprouted you don’t actually need to soak (for phytic acid reasons) as sprouting deactivates phytic acid. Brita filters do act on chlorine and they are what I use. I’m not sure it’s as good as non-chlorinated water…but it’s what I have!

Chlorinated water will slow down the fermentation (as chlorine inhibits *all* bacteria).

As long as the balsamic is unpasteurised this will work. The ratios sound about right to me, but if you want to be sure, do the conversion once online to check. I do not know if crushing the buckwheat makes available the same amount of phytase as milling it and don’t think anyone has quantified that. The probiotics in the vinegar will pull their weight in the process though.

Yes, absolutely! Brownies with oats sound delicious!

Thank you for your website and blog! ♥️
Can I follow the soaking here for rolled oats, but instead of stove top cooking, I blend and bake it?

I’m wanting to do brownies using whole grains like oat 🙈

Hi Pauline, ACV, if unpasteurised, would be better than lemon juice as it contains probiotics and would therefore ferment the mix which would potentially neutralise more phytic acid.

Hi Richard, There are some scientific papers on how lacto-probiotics can decrease phytic acid, but the research is not thorough enough for me to give you a definitive yes. Can you buy apple cider vinegar? It’s a lot cheaper than probiotics and would possibly give you the same outcome.

I never cook in milk. It might spoil, yes, the only way to tell is give it a go.

I do sometimes put milk in after the oats have been cooked (I sometimes warm the milk first, to stop the oats getting too cold).

Do you like milk kefir? You could soak the oats in that (instead of cider vinegar). That way, when you cook them, they’d have a creamier consistency.