Sbarro's mall pizza

[RoadPizza]

RoadPizza,

Do you know offhand whether Sbarro's still uses a liquid nondiastatic malt? I saw a frozen square Sbarro's pizza in a Wal-Mart recently, and one of the ingredients listed was dry malt. I assumed that it was nondiastatic malt. Of course, there were a lot of other additives and conditioners listed that undoubtedly are considered necessary for a pizza that is to be sold frozen in supermarkets. My recollection is that the fat in the dough was soybean oil, and possibly a bit of olive oil. I didn't really analyze the ingredients list all that carefully because I assumed that the supermarket pizza would be different than what is sold in the Sbarro's stores.

Peter

It's not liquid.  I don't remember them ever using a liquid malt.

[Pete-zza]

It's not liquid.  I don't remember them ever using a liquid malt.

RoadPizza,

Do you recall their ever using dry barley malt?

Peter

[RoadPizza]

RoadPizza,

Do you recall their ever using dry barley malt?

Peter

I believe that they still use a dry malt.

[camillewinnie]

I used to manage a Sbarros restaurant years ago.  This looks pretty close to what we did exept that we used butter not lard and no sugar I think the lard would give a nice rich taste as well.  We also just used lukewarm water not iced.  The ice water slows down rising. It just depends on how fast you need to use the dough. The dough proofed/rested in the walkin refidgerator overnight and was taken out as needed to warm up and rise before making the pizza.  The trick is to scale the recipe down for home use.  As far as the yeast goes we used a cake yeast and I seems like it was about 1 and a half squares so the 1 1/2 oz proportion seems right. 

Lisante is the food supplier used by all Sbarros. They are based somewhere back east.  You can't buy their products in a grocery store.  You just have to find the closest thing to it.

There are no preservatives or malt used in the recipes at the restaurants- probably just in frozen products you buy in the store.

Hope this helps.  Anyone have any other questions I can try to help.  It was a long time ago- I wish I would have written the recipes down.  I am trying to locate the spice mix proportions myself.

CW

Making Pizza, Sbarro-Style
At Sbarro, the one in Annapolis Mall, I was a prep cook for years, the only one dedicated to the task (if I wasn't there, one of the managers had to fill in). I used to work 60-hour weeks in the summer, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Saturday. I prepared all the dough, made all the sauce, grated all the cheese, chopped all the vegetables, and prepared other things like lasagnas.

The dough was the central and largest task. It consisted of 75 lb. batches of dough, up to six batches a day. That comes out to aroud 300 large dough balls per day.

This was the recipe and general procedure for one batch:

1 50-lb sack of Lisante Pizza flour
1 1/2 oz dry active yeast
1 lb Lard
salt, little bit of sugar
24 lbs ice water.


I don't remember the timing exactly, but the water and yeast, salt ans sugar was mixed for a little while on the floor-model, 5-foot-high hobard mixer. Then the flour and lard added, and the whole thing would mix, with a two-foot dough hook attatchment on the Hobart, for something like 20 minutes.

When the dough was ready, I picked up the 90lb bowl off the mixer and emptied it onto the table. This was an awesome long table, top made entirely out of butcher block.

After that I cut and rolled the entire batch into 24 oz balls. "Rolling" means stretching the ball around on itself, producing a nice, round, smooth ball. I got so I could do two at once, working them one-handed against the table. The balls went into dough trays for storage and proofing rising), six balls per tray.

I'd go through this proceess up to six times per shift, not counting all the other prep work.

Also, we used the same dough for calzones, and the process was the same except the dough balls were only six ounces. I hated that because it;s not all that much less effort to roll a 6-oz ball than a full size one, and being smaller, there's so much many more to do per batch.

Actually, I usually only had to roll a couple of trays of calzone douogh balls, or about 48, for the next day, and the rest of the batch wou;d be regular 24 oz pizza balls.

But sometimes, during the holiday season, I'd have to do a whole batch of calzone balls. That was rough, wich a whole bacth making for some 200 calzone balls. The huge pile of dough never seemed to dimish when rolling for calzone.

A word about the ice water: If you ever made dough or bread at home, you might wonder about this, since most of the time bread dough needs to be warm to rise.

Well, the thing is, it's actually that dough needs to be warm to rise fast, as in, ready to bake sometime in the next couple of hours.

The truth is, once the yeast is activated (mixed with water), it's going to rise no matter what happens. when it's cold, it just rises more slowly.
Since I was preparing dough for use the next day, I actually needed to keep the brakes on the yeast as much as possible, or else it would rise too much, too fast, and become an unuable mess by the next day.

The ice water kept the dough cold during the cutting and rolling process. Then, into the walk-in refrigerator it went as soon as rolling was done, hopefully still cold.

There were times (rare, thankfully), perhaps in the summer if the Mall's AC was on the fritz, when the dough got too warm The dough balls would rise too much overnight, merging into one solid pan of dough. Usually this dough would have to be tossed, but there were a few occasions of extreme business when we didn't have enough to spare, and couldn't afford to dump the badly risen dough. Then it tested theh pizza-makers's skill, to cut out usable sections from the pan and form it best he/she could into a decently shaped pizza. Fortunately, we had good makers.Next: Lemme tell you about how they (I) USED to make sauce at Sbarro.

[camillewinnie]

I used to manage a Sbarros restaurant years ago.  This looks pretty close to what we did exept that we used butter not lard and no sugar I think the lard would give a nice rich taste as well.  We also just used lukewarm water not iced.  The ice water slows down rising. It just depends on how fast you need to use the dough. The dough proofed/rested in the walkin refidgerator overnight and was taken out as needed to warm up and rise before making the pizza.  The trick is to scale the recipe down for home use.  As far as the yeast goes we used a cake yeast and I seems like it was about 1 and a half squares so the 1 1/2 oz proportion seems right. 

Lisante is the food supplier used by all Sbarros. They are based somewhere back east.  You can't buy their products in a grocery store.  You just have to find the closest thing to it.

We didn't use any malt syrup though.  I worked there in 87'.  Maybe the recipe changed since then. 

Hope this helps.  Anyone have any other questions I can try to help.  It was a long time ago- I wish I would have written the recipes down.  I am trying to locate the seasoning mix  proportions for the sauce myself.

CW

I worked at the Sbarros in the Crossgates Mall (Albany N.Y.) foodcourt.   1994-1996.  The recipe we used is as follows:

50 pounds Lisante Pizza Flour (measured on a scale, because the #50 bags usually did not contain exactly #50 of flour)
28 pounds of ice-water (measured on a floor scale, we used cold tap water and added 2 large scoops of ice from our ice machine.  The      plastic scoop is roughly the size of a 2 liter soda bottle.)

20 oz of shortening (we did not use lard)
16 oz of salt
2.00 ounces of actice-dry yeast (there was a special digital scale used to weigh the yeast.)
Malt Syrup (this came in an unlabeled plastic bag.  A thick and heavy brown liquid.  I cut the top off and squeezed it in.  A very rough guess from memory would be that  the capacity was 1.5 cups, but I can't be sure.)

Mixed in the giant hobart for 7 minutes low speed, 5 high.   Don't lose a limb.  Cut and roll dough, place in stackable dough trays, and slide into walk-in cooler.  Dough was made in the afternoon and used the next day.

[camillewinnie]

This recipe looks close- but we didn't use water or sherry.  We use a canned plum tomato that was pureed in a food mill and not cooked.  The spices were added and then the sauce was just refridgerated till needed. It was acutally a very simple sauce.  For the marinara that went over the calzones, onions were sauteed in a LOT of butter and then the onions and butter were added to the sauce.
 

hi,

This is a sauce recipe I have for Sbarro's.  I have made it before, it is very, very close to Sbarro's chain Sauce.

Sbarro Tomato Sauce

2 − 1 lb. 12 oz. Cans Crushed Tomatoes
1 − Tomato Can Cold Water
4 Oz. Grated Romano Cheese
12 oz. Olive Oil
10 oz. Diced Onions
1 oz. Chopped Fresh Garlic
1/2 oz. Chopped Fresh Italian Parsley
3 oz. Sherry Cooking Wine

**SPICES**
2 Tbls. Salt
2 tsp. Oregano
1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
2 tsp. Basil

1. Heat oil until hot but not smoking. Add onions and saute until
almost browned. Add garlic.
2. When garlic is brown, de−glaze pan with sherry. Add parsley and stir.
3. Add tomatoes, water, cheese, and spices. Mix well.
4. Bring just to boil and simmer one hour.
Sbarro Tomato Sauce 386

[DaveH]

As others were I was very interested in the "pizza mold" pan used by Sbarro's. As I am an upper extremity amputee shaping a pie is particularly trying for me.

I was unable to secure a mold pan (Sbarro type) and the company ignored my email so I had to improvise. I bought a Wilton (the cake folks) "giant chocolate cookie" pan. The pan is 10.5" and about 1/2" or so deep.

The process I used was to lightly oil the pan and press to shape dough (pan bottom only).  After removing the pie it was very easy to continue to press the dough to about a 12", still round, pie. To remove the pie I just turned the pan over and tapped it a couple of times on the parchment covered peel.

After dressing the pie I baked it on the stone for 5 min., then I slid the paper from under the pie and finished it directly on the stone.

Worked great! I just found my new process.

[mcgerm]

The sauce I know... As a teen I worked there 2 to 1 Furmano's Italian Peeled Plum tomatoes through a food mill and Furmano's Heavy Pizza Sauce. (#10 cans) The spices I forgot but someone poasted:
 **SPICES**
2 Tbls. Salt
2 tsp. Oregano
1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
2 tsp. Basil

And this looks close in ratio...

The dough had 50# pizza flour 2# lard, 120z refridgerated cake yeast mother, and I think 12oz of salt.

[macaroni35]

New to this board, I tried the formula that, I believe, Pete put out there with the bakers % last night.  I am waiting to see the result.  I have a strong back ground in artisan baking.  diastatic malt in the formula serves a couple of purposes.  Has a lot to do with ezymatic activity in a retarding yeast dough.  Stopping fermentation and allowing enzymes to convert starches to sugars which later yeast will eat with by product being alcohol and CO2, hence leavening.  One can make there own diastatic malt with wheat berries and partially sprouting them, then drying and milling.  Recipes are out there in cyber land just do a query for diastatic malt sustitute. 

As well, we tried the Sbarro pizza sauce/marinara with the LOT of butter and diced white onion.  Exact result.  The butter is the key.  We always were wondering what mellowed the acidity of the tomato while giving a mouth feel similar to the of animal fat.  Well it was animal fat, butter.  Good stuff for those out there who are after it.

Final thing, anyone have a full proof NY style crust formula willing to let me try.  Times are hard, we would rather make the pizza ourselves than to spend 15-25$ on a so so pie.  Let me know and thanks for the website, nice forum here.  Answered some of my questions.  Take care 

[Pete-zza]

macaroni35,

What you say about diastatic malt is correct but the dough formulation I posted at Reply 56 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2061.msg40413.html#msg40413 calls for nondiastatic malt, which has no enzymatic function. Using 2.2% diastatic malt may cause too much enzyme activity and yield an overly sticky and pasty dough, as Tom Lehmann discusses at the PMQ Think Tank at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=15642#15642.

As for a "fool proof" NY style dough formulation for you to try, I have learned never to hold out any dough recipe as being "fool proof", no matter the level of detail and instruction and photos that are given to try to minimize mishaps and failure. However, a typical NY style dough formulation that I regularly recommend to new pizza makers who are interested in that style, or even as a good starting point for one's home pizza making career, is the so-called Lehmann NY style dough formulation presented in Reply 8 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2223.msg19563.html#msg19563. That is a versatile formulation and can be easily altered using the expanded dough calculating tool at http://www.pizzamaking.com/expanded_calculator.html to make any size pizza, in any desired quantity, and to make substitutions of ingredients, like using ADY instead of IDY, altering the hydration to use high-gluten flour instead of bread flour, changing the skin/crust thickness, adding a bit of sugar, etc. By my count, there are perhaps close to a dozen other dough formulations on the forum held out to be "NY style" formulations but I would say that the Lehmann formulation comes quite close to the classic NY style.

Peter

[ZekeTheCat]

One thing I've noticed noticed about Sbarro pizza , in recent visits , is that when I carefully peel back the cheese and toppings ,the sauce appears to have a very thin sparse "painted" on appearance - not thick sauce like some other brands of pizza or homemade attempts. I don't taste the sauce hardly at all - just the cheese and toppings - sausage in my case . I'm guessing that they thin their canned sauce down considerably with water most of which boils off during baking , leaving the thin painted on appearance. It seems to be near "white" pizza in my opinion.
For a mall pizza , I like it a lot as long as it isn't too old and I really like the crust which I've never quite duplicated - but I keep on trying and experimenting

[Pete-zza]

I like it a lot as long as it isn't too old and I really like the crust which I've never quite duplicated - but I keep on trying and experimenting

Zeke,

Is there a particular dough recipe or recipes that you have been using?

Peter

[ZekeTheCat]

Peter
This is my current Sbarro recipe for a 16 oz+ dough ball that I use for a 14" diameter pizza skin with an approximate 1/8" thickness and 3/4" diameter rims (cornicione) :

282 gr - HGF (Bay State - Bouncer HGF -14% protein)
1 tsp - salt
1/2 tsp - SAF IDY
164 gr - cold tap water
1 3/4 tsp - lard or bacon grease
1 tsp  - Barley Malt extract (Edon Organic )

I add the malt extract to the water and stir until dissolved and then add the lard or grease , previously melted in a microwave , and stir until it's fairly well mixed. I then dry mix the flour, salt and idy in my Kitchenaid mixer and slowly add the liquid mixture until well mixed-speed 1- and the bowl sides are clean. I let it set for 20 minutes then knead for 8 minutes -speed 1-  until smooth and satiny. I let it rise for 4 hrs at room temp, re-hand knead it then into the fridge over night for use the next day. I use about 4 oz sauce and 8 oz cheese for a 14" pie.

I bake the pizzas at 550F for abut 6 minutes give or take on quarry tiles - bottom oven rack.

I think the main problem is that most residential ovens (including my GE) can't put out the volume of heat (BTU/H) that a commercial restaurant pizza does even though they can get to the same temps  - which I think Sabarro uses about 525 to 550 F in their deck ovens. I am going try on my next attempt pre-baking the crust until lightly browned and then adding the toppings and finish off the baking til the cheese is nicely melted but not browned and leathery.
I saw the cooks on PBS America Test Kitchen do that on one of their pizza programs and it seemed to give good results.

I'm also going to thin the sauce down to get to try and achieve that sparse painted look mentioned in the previous post and see how that works.

[Pete-zza]

One thing I've noticed noticed about Sbarro pizza , in recent visits , is that when I carefully peel back the cheese and toppings ,the sauce appears to have a very thin sparse "painted" on appearance - not thick sauce like some other brands of pizza or homemade attempts. I don't taste the sauce hardly at all - just the cheese and toppings - sausage in my case . I'm guessing that they thin their canned sauce down considerably with water most of which boils off during baking , leaving the thin painted on appearance. It seems to be near "white" pizza in my opinion.

Zeke,

I found a YouTube pizza making demonstration by Sbarro's Chef Borruso, at

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEPxIjQs5yk&amp;feature=related" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEPxIjQs5yk&amp;feature=related</a>

, and from that video the sauce looks to be quite plentiful. Sbarro's was taken over some time ago by a private equity firm so maybe they have decided to cut costs as much as possible. I noticed, for example, that the Chef says the pizza size is 17". My recollection is that the pizza size was 18".

Peter

[Pete-zza]

A while back, I stumbled upon a thread at the PMQ Think Tank, at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=8639#8639, in which a member (also a member of this forum) inquired about a source of the pizza molds used by Sbarro in its stores. That mold is shown in Reply 45 in this thread, at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2061.msg39550.html#msg39550.

As noted in the PMQTT thread, the source of the Sbarro pizza mold is The Wasserstrom Company (http://www.wasserstrom.com/?gclid=CKy9x53slpsCFRSfnAodl2Eo9Q). Having seen a similar mold used for the same purpose at a Papa Gino's store in Massachusetts recently, I decided to call Wasserstrom (1-866-634-8927) to inquire as to the availability of such molds. From my conversation with a customer service representative, I learned that Wasserstrom is only a distributor of the mold, and only for Sbarro, not Papa Gino's. The mold itself, which is made of aluminum and is 11" in diameter (the Sbarro pizzas come in only one size, 18" I believe), is manufactured by Allied Metal USA, in the Bronx, NY. Since the 11" mold is made exclusively for Sbarro, the customer service rep called Allied to see if it would allow Wasserstrom to sell the mold to others. The answer was yes. Since the website does not show the mold, one would have to call Wasserstrom and order by phone. I was told that the part number is 119860. The cost is $50.75 (plus shipping, no doubt).

So, for anyone who is interested in the Sbarro mold, they may want to jump on it before they change their mind.

Peter

[jhadhar65]

We've got a few Sbarro's close enough to me to be semi-convenient and I've eaten at various ones throughout the country.  I visit a certain one of our local stores regularly because it's the best Sbarro's I've eaten and I could tell there was something a little different.  Anyway, in talking with the guy working the line, I mentioned what I thought about his pizza and he said, "We follow the recipes very closely here and don't take shortcuts.  We lead our region in sales."

I said, "Oh yeah?  I can easily believe that."

He said, "Well, we follow them pretty closely.  We do some things here a little differently."

I decided to push it a little.  "Like what?"

He answered, "We don't use any malt.  That stuff tastes nasty.  And we add sugar to the dough."

I started to ask what kind of flour or mix and get him to elaborate on the added sugar and fermentation, then he added, "But our cheese is the best part."

I went with that and asked him what kind of cheese they used and he said something to another employee I couldn't make out, then he walked off the line and into the back.  I thought I may have pushed it too far and was ready to pay for my order when he came back and handed me a 5 lb. cheese box.  Sbarro's was the only brand name I could find, but I did see it was 100% whole milk mozz.  Anyway, by the time I returned the box to the counter and paid for my order, a couple of chicks had walked up and any conversation with me had totally been overshadowed.  Oh well...

I see the guy every time I walk the line, so I'll go by again next week and see what else he'll tell me if you guys are interested.

[scott r]

I know at one time the cheese was lisante

[ZekeTheCat]

Lisanti used to supply their sauce to Sbarro but I believe they filed ch 11 bankruptsy a few years ago'
Sbarro now uses their own brand sauce .

Sad news about Sbarro in these tough economic times:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Restaurants-on-the-usnews-15511482.html?.v=1

[RoadPizza]

One thing I've noticed noticed about Sbarro pizza , in recent visits , is that when I carefully peel back the cheese and toppings ,the sauce appears to have a very thin sparse "painted" on appearance - not thick sauce like some other brands of pizza or homemade attempts. I don't taste the sauce hardly at all - just the cheese and toppings - sausage in my case . I'm guessing that they thin their canned sauce down considerably with water most of which boils off during baking , leaving the thin painted on appearance. It seems to be near "white" pizza in my opinion.
For a mall pizza , I like it a lot as long as it isn't too old and I really like the crust which I've never quite duplicated - but I keep on trying and experimenting

If the store manager was doing his job, the sauce should not be this way.  He could be instructing his employees to cut back on ingredients so he can have a much lower food cost (and higher performance bonus) OR the pizza maker did not stir his pizza sauce before ladling it into the stretched dough.  Done to recipe standards, it should be a very good and visually appealing pizza.

[Pete-zza]

I discovered today that there is another company, Marsal and Sons, that sells 11" pizza molds such as used at Sbarro to shape dough skins. The mold, as well as a video pertaining to its use, can be seen at http://www.marsalsons.com/default.aspx?pageId=45.

I did not see any pricing at the Marsal website, at http://www.marsalsons.com/default.aspx?pageid=27, so I called Marsal. I ended up speaking with one of the Ferrara's listed in the contact section of the website who told me that the price of the pizza mold is $25, plus shipping. That base price is about half of the price charged by Wasserstrom, also for an 11" mold. I was told that the mold can be used to make pizzas up to 20". Sbarro makes 18" pizzas (although I saw a video some time ago where the size was 17"). I don't know if there is a common manufacturer, but the molds sold by Marsal and Wasserstrom look to me to be identical for all practical purposes. Since there is no mechanism for ordering products from Marsal online, one needs to call Marsal (at 631-226-6688) and place an order with one of their employees.

Peter