Dark specialty grains

I was reading in another thread where not much if any sugar is extracted during mash. Do you think I should mash with the rest or just steep them separately?

Mash em, less complicated.

Some people recommend steeping them separately. Supposedly it cuts the astringency/bitterness of the dark roasting. I haven't made a dark beer since I read about doing it that way, so i cant say for sure, but I'm going to try it next time I do a porter or stout. The first time I heard about it was in Gordon Strong's book, Brewing Better Beer.

It won't hurt, though, if that's what you want to know.

Recently went to a Gordon strong talk and his steeping (Vorloff) advice was the one big take away that I got. Going to try it on my next dark brew.