Tortas de aceite
Andalusian discs from Seville, sold wrapped individually in waxed paper — thin, brittle, shattering at a touch. Neither biscuit nor bread but something in between. Two details decide the result: the oil is infused beforehand with anise and lemon peel, since fat takes up their aroma well, and the dough is stretched by hand into very thin discs — flattened with the palms, it keeps an irregular shape and bakes up brittle.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Infusing the oil 30 min
- Dough 15 min
- Rising 60 min
- Resting the balls 15 min
- Baking 45 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneInfuse the oil with anise and peel
Heat the oil with the anise, sesame and strips of lemon peel to 80°C and hold 10 minutes without letting it fry, then leave to cool. The warm oil draws the essential oils out of the anise and peel, then carries their aroma through the whole dough.
Ingredients: 150 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp anise · 1 pcs lemon · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Eighty degrees for ten minutes — infusing, not frying.Strain the oil, keep the seeds
Strain the cooled oil, discarding the peel but keeping the anise and sesame. The peel strips have given up their aroma and would be tough and bitterish in the dough; the seeds stay and give the characteristic crunch.
Ingredients: 150 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp anise · 1 pcs lemon · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Make the dough with the infused oil
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, add the flour, 40 g of sugar, the salt, a teaspoon of anise, all the infused oil and the reserved seeds. Knead 8 minutes. The dough will be smooth and distinctly greasy — correct, since the oil weighs more than a third as much as the flour.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Rise for an hour
Cover and leave an hour somewhere warm. A dough this rich rises slowly and will not double — it is enough that it visibly relaxes and feels soft.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Divide into small balls and rest
Divide the dough into 20 balls of about 33 g and leave under a cloth for 15 minutes. This rest relaxes the gluten — without it the dough springs back at every attempt to stretch it.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
Stretch by hand, not with a pin
Flatten the balls with your palm and fingers, ideally straight onto sheets of baking paper, until very thin (1–2 mm) and about 15 cm across. The edges may be ragged — an irregular shape is the mark of tortas.
Ingredients: 350 g plain flour · 100 ml water · 4 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 tsp salt · 1 tsp anise
By hand, very thin — ragged edges are correct.Sprinkle generously with sugar
Slide the discs, paper and all, onto a tray, 4 at a time, and scatter with coarse sugar and sesame, pressing lightly. The sugar caramelises on the surface into a glassy layer that cracks as it cools — hence the characteristic crazing.
Ingredients: 60 g sugar · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Coarse sugar caramelises and cracks as it cools.Bake briefly and very hot
Bake in batches for 7–9 minutes at 220°C, until the edges brown and the sugar melts — all the trays take about 45 minutes in total. They will still be soft when you take them out — they harden only as they cool on a rack. Do not extend the bake for that reason.
Ingredients: 60 g sugar · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Before you start
The oil must be mild
A sharp, peppery extra virgin overwhelms the anise and lemon, the leading aromas here. Choose a mellow, ripe oil, such as arbequina — sweetish, with an almondy note.
Anise, not star anise
This means the small seeds of aniseed, not star anise pods — the latter are far more intense and carry a liquorice, medicinal note that dominates everything else in this dough.
Two weeks in a tin
Tortas keep two weeks in an airtight tin layered with paper and barely lose their snap, being very low in moisture. If they soften, give them 3 minutes in a 160°C oven and cool on a rack.
