Same day New York style pizza

Weigh everything on a scale; volume is not precise enough, since a cup of flour can run from 100 to 180 grams depending on how it is scooped.

Combine the flour, salt, instant yeast and sugar, measured as baker's percentages of the flour weight.

Add the vegetable shortening; fat coats the flour and interferes with gluten formation, which makes the dough more tender, and helps it brown.

Add the warm water at about 90 degrees to give the yeast a kick start.

Mix only until the dough comes together into a shaggy ball, cleaning the sides of the bowl with it.

Let it rest 15 to 30 minutes so the flour fully absorbs the water and the flour proteins break down enzymatically, which makes kneading possible.

Knead until it forms a relatively smooth satiny ball that pulls off cleanly, a few minutes at speed three; in a food processor about 30 seconds, or by hand squish and turn it repeatedly.

Oil a proofing container, shape the dough into an even round ball and bulk ferment at room temperature from half an hour up to a couple of hours; this one went about two to two and a half hours.

Variation: for a cold ferment, seal it in a container with room to rise and refrigerate up to about five days, which browns better and gets stretchier.

Oil the board lightly, divide the dough in two with no bench flour, and shape each half into a ball, tucking to get a stretched skin and pinching a belly button underneath.

Proof the balls seam side down in round containers, or between two bowls, for a couple of hours until roughly doubled and slackened enough to stretch easily.

Preheat the oven to 550F on a roast setting with the fan on, with the baking steel positioned low enough to sit below the convection fan and heavy metal above it to radiate heat down.

Sprinkle the ball with a little semolina, dimple the rim with the fingertips to separate out the cornicione, stretch gently with the fingertips and then over the knuckles, letting the weight of the dough do the work, out to about 16 inches; 14 inches is fine if it will not cooperate.

Once within an inch or two of final size, get it onto the peel.

Spread the fresh tomato puree seasoned with a little salt, scatter oregano under the cheese, add the low moisture whole milk mozzarella, a sprinkle of Parmesan, a little basil, more oregano and a pinch of salt.

Stretch it a little further under the weight of the toppings, check that it slides freely on the peel, and load it onto the steel.

Ideally the steel sits right under the broiler element and the broiler goes on as the pizza goes in, for heat from above and below; this oven will not broil above 500 degrees, hence the metal stacked overhead.

Rotate the pizza a couple of times during the bake; about five to six minutes total, plus another 30 seconds for more colour at the back.

Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil and a little more Parmesan.