Artisan pizza at home ala Franco Manca

[vdempsey]

Chanced upon this book, Franco Manca Artisan Pizza, To Make Perfectly at Home, by Giuseppe Mascoli & Bridget Hugo in my local bookstore.

Never heard of him or his pizza place.

Thought it was a good experiment to do as a newbie making pizza at home. Book had recipe versions for yeast and/or sourdough.

The book recommended making pizza on iron pan on a stove top set to medium heat. After opening your ball via stretching with your fingers and opening further with back of your fists after gently picking it up, drop it on to hot pan. Allow dough to start rising. Dress with toppings. Transfer to oven on broil in hi setting.  About 6 minutes total.

The recipe didn't give baker's percentage. I did half of the published recipe.

Sourdough Version
250 ml lukewarm water (22C)
30g Starter
8g olive oil
380g flour (I used 00)
10g salt

Book has a lot of varieties for pizza toppings. I thought it was a good pizza book for home pizza makers. I recommend it.

Vida

[vdempsey]

Crumb shot

[Pete-zza]

Vida,

Franco Manca is a chain of around fifty pizzerias in the London area:

https://www.francomanca.co.uk/

Giuseppe Mascoli is an owner of the chain, and is mentioned at the Franco Manca website cited above.

One of our members, pizzanapoletana (Marco Parente), created the dough formulation (including a natural starter) used by Franco Manca although as the chain grew it apparently has altered its dough formulation and methods to reflect the larger chain. If you do a forum search using the terms Franco Manca, you will get about 180 hits, including many posts by Marco and several by me. Here are a couple of my posts:

Reply 24 at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=52559.msg529597#msg529597, and

Reply 54 at https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=50889.msg512603#msg512603.

It's a small world .

Peter

[vdempsey]

Hello Peter,

Yes, now I realize Franco Manca is quite a big star in the UK pizza world after doing a google search on his name.

And, I do believe I have come across pizzanapoletana's name in the forum threads whilst doing my research here. I shall read further on the links you have posted to get myself more acquainted with Franco Manca pizza style. Thank you for sharing them.

Indeed, it's a small world after all .

Vida

[hammettjr]

I wouldn't think you'd need to parbake your crust in a pan, given your oven setup. But your pizza does look good!

[vdempsey]

I wouldn't think you'd need to parbake your crust in a pan, given your oven setup. But your pizza does look good!

Hi Matt,

Thank you.  I actually don't parbake my pizzas.  As per the Franco Manca recipe in the book, just wanted to follow his method to see how it compared to my straight to oven method. 

[DoouBall]

vdempsey, how many hours in balls did you find ideal for this method? thanks!

[vdempsey]

vdempsey, how many hours in balls did you find ideal for this method? thanks!

Hi DoouBall,

My first try w/ this method was good as you can see above.

I've tried a 9h in Bulk @ RT and 10h in balls in Fridge + 1h RT before stretching. It was good. Ball opened well w/ very minor tear w/c I pinched back to close.

I now have a straight to 4 balls @ RT 75-77F for 13h and moved to fridge to retard and will launch 2 pies later. Will let you know how it opens and stretches.

Then I can finally answer your question as to my ideal hours in balls but, so far, I find his recipe to be very flexible.

Vida

[vdempsey]

Here is pizza 9h in Bulk RT + 10h Ball in Fridge.

[DoouBall]

Thanks for doing the experiment! Are you finding much rise in the fridge? I found that I have much better results with sourdough at room temp or a little below. Fridge completely stops my starter based doughs from fermenting.

When I did fridge rises with sourdough in the past, I always threw in a pinch of IDY just to make sure activity doesn't stop altogether. Now I try to ferment sourdough at 65F-75F depending on time. Cheers!

[vdempsey]

Thanks for doing the experiment! Are you finding much rise in the fridge? I found that I have much better results with sourdough at room temp or a little below. Fridge completely stops my starter based doughs from fermenting.

When I did fridge rises with sourdough in the past, I always threw in a pinch of IDY just to make sure activity doesn't stop altogether. Now I try to ferment sourdough at 65F-75F depending on time. Cheers!

I only now use the fridge to retard/stop the fermentation of my bulk and/or balls AFTER fermenting @ RT.

The outcome of my 13hr fermentation @ RT in balls is posted here:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=57358.msg586067#msg586067

So I can honestly say, straight to balls with this recipe is my preferred method.