SnickASaurusRex

Recipes 

So it's been years since I have done an extract brew. I was sold an all grain set up for pretty cheep when I started and it's just been the way I kept doing it. The old lady recently had some home brewed ciders at a friends house, and wants me to put together a kit so she can make them. They used cider and crystal malt. The recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of various crystal and 2 - 3 oz of terrified wheat. It all gets steeped in a gallon of the juice for about 30 minutes between 165F -170F and then boiled with 1/2 oz of hops for thirty minutes.

So this is a lot like extract brewing and I have a few questions:

1. Do the extract values for the crystal malts still hold up (1.035), even though they are being steeped and not mashed? Do they vary (up or down) from mashed crystal?
2. How do I strain the grain from this pseudo wort before the boil?
3. Should I strain the hops and any break material that I get from the boil?
4. What about adding bentonite to the ferment to help remove pectin haze?

Just in case it is helpful here is the recipes I will be using.



Belgium Inspired Amber Cider
5 gal cider
.5 # Special B
1 # Crystal 40L
2 oz torrified wheat
.5 Saaz - 30 min
Fermentis T-58 64 - 68F
OG --- 1.055
FG --- 1.004
ABV -- 6.6%
SRM -- 18
IBU --- 4


Honey Cider
5 gal Cider
.5# Honey malt
1 # Crystal 60L
2 oz torrified wheat
.5 oz East Kent Goldings - 30 min
Fermentis S-04 64 - 68F
OG --- 1.056
FG --- 1.004
ABV -- 6.7%
SRM -- 12
IBU --- 7

JumboBlimpJumbo

Recipes 

The crystal malts really are going to add almost no gravity to your beer ~0.001 per pound as far as I know, mostly just color and a little flavor. If you have some kind of mesh grain bag put them in that or if not a colander would work fine, and you might want to sparge with maybe 1/2 gallon of water afterwards.
At the end of the boil you'll want to cool it as quickly as you can, and most of the hops and break material will settle to the bottom. You can try to decant off of it but it won't hurt to just dump it all in, it will settle out in the fermenter and won't give any off flavors.
I don't know anything about bentonite but a lot of people use gelatin to clear up their brews and get great results. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/gelatin-finings-53912/
Hope that helps.