Spanish olive oil tortas, or tortas de aceite, taste just like the store-bought sweet olive oil tortas by Ines Rosales when you follow our instructions. Crisp. Crackly. And with just the right amount of sweet. Here's how to make them at home as well as how to serve them.
Prep time: PT30M
Cook time: PT20M
Total time: PT50M
Rating
4.91 stars (21 reviews)
Keywords
sweet torta cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups Italian 00 flour* or cake flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
Scant 1/2 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil (plus more for the baking sheets)
2/3 cup warm water
3 tablespoons raw sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
2 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
Confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)
All-purpose flour (for the work surface)
1 large egg white (beaten)
Categories
Dessert
Cuisine
Spanish
Steps
Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).
In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups flour (180 g), salt, and fennel seeds.
Pour the oil into a measuring cup or another bowl containing the water, stir in the sugar and yeast, and mix well. Let rest for a few minutes until it becomes frothy.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and slowly pour in the yeast mixture, using a fork to gradually mix in the flour. When everything starts to come together, use your hands to mix it into a smooth dough. If the dough is sticky as heck, add some or all of the remaining 1 cup flour, a little at a time, until a smooth dough forms. It's quite possible you'll need to add at least 1/2 cup and as much as the full 1 cup.
Lightly oil 2 large baking sheets and then dust them with confectioners’ sugar. Lightly flour a clean work surface and a rolling pin with all-purpose flour.
Divide your dough into 12 equal-size pieces and shape each one into a ball. Roll out each ball until it’s almost translucent and somewhere around 4 inches in diameter.☞ TESTER TIP: It's not a specific thickness, such as 1/16 or 1/8 inch, that you want to look for with the dough. Rather, it's when the dough becomes so thin as to be almost transparent. That's when you know it's at the proper place. And don't worry about attaining a perfect circular shape. These are intended to be rustic.
Place each torta on a baking sheet and lightly brush with some beaten egg white. Lightly dust the dough first with confectioners’ sugar and then a little raw sugar.
Bake for 5 to 12 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Watch the tortas closely as they can burn in seconds.
Immediately transfer the tortas to wire racks to cool and crisp. Devour warm or at room temperature. The tortas will crumble into flaky loveliness as you take a bite, and will then quickly dissolve into sweet nothingness within seconds. So lovely.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 torta
Calories: 176 kcal
Carbohydrates: 19 g
Protein: 4 g
Fat: 10 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Sodium: 201 mg
Sugar: 3 g
Unsaturated Fat: 8 g
Reviews
Cheryl Foote on 2026-06-23 (5 stars): Recently, we received a packet of tortas de aceite from Spain with our monthly cheese order from our local cheese shop and were instantly smitten! When I found this recipe and realized I had 00 flour in the freezer, I decided to try making them. The ones we had were flavored with a hint of orange, so instead of using the 2 teaspoons of fennel, I used 1 teaspoon of orange paste that I bought on our last trip to Germany. The dough came together beautifully, and rolling the balls of dough thin enough was also easy. I baked them for about 10 to 12 minutes, and they crisped up perfectly. Bravo and gracias, David!
Gavin on 2022-12-30 (5 stars): I ate the ones with orange zest in a bar in Seville. They were topped with an avocado cream (no chili) and diced, raw salmon, and served as a first course or snack with ice-ice-cold oloroso sherry. They were utterly divine.
I’ve since used this recipe, and it works. No higher praise exists.
I’ve made “savoury” tortas with no sugar and a sprinkle of Maldon salt flakes on the egg-white. Astonishingly good with light cream cheese, like Caboc.
Rosie Who on 2020-11-04 (5 stars): Love these, but I also love the commercial orange flavored type. Should I just omit the anise? How much orange (zest/juice?) would i use? Or keep the anise and just add orange zest? Haven't been able to find these in a store here so I can't look at a label.
Thanks
Christopher Moss on 2018-02-16 (5 stars): I did this today, as my wife who lived in Gibraltar growing up was missing these tortas. They are dreadfully hard to find in Canada. (We would have to fly from NS to Toronto and walk up to the Wholefoods Market in trendy Yorkville to buy some.) Naturally, as a good cook ought, I changed something. I had used the last of my fennel in the aniseed/instant coffee oatcakes I make for my boss (Yep. Same one as above.) Nothing available locally in NS, so I looked at a tiny bag of star anise and decided to commit to it. Ground it fine and noted that instead of generic Chinese supermarket, it now smelled of aniseed balls!
Next change was to use all-purpose flour in place of cake flour. (I can buy cake flour, but I already keep jars of white bread flour, whole-wheat bread flour and all-purpose on my counter; I don't have room for a fourth.) Last change was in the rolling out--remembering how I make rough-puff pastry, hot water pastry and scones, I decided to roll, fold twice and roll again, hoping it would make the final result flakier. Actually, I did some both ways, and they are definitely two different populations as they come out of the oven--the ones made from folded dough are a lot thicker with flaky layers.
The boss? Loves me more than ever! Thanks for the recipe!
pamela on 2014-04-12 (5 stars): Made them! Oh joy .. oh ecstasy. I think 00 flour makes the difference as to the amount of flour you need. Mine did great w/ 2 cups of flour. I did a bit of research on these puppies as they caught my fancy. I ended up infusing orange and lemon peel and the anise/fennel/sesame seeds into the hot oil... then discarding the peel. I tried 1/12th, and way too big. 1/24th gave me a nice 6-inch round. A bit labor intensive but worth it. I double panned them and baked on baking stones. 5 minutes more than enough. Next time I will try savory for appetizers. Very fun. My Cuban foodie friend said she hadn't tasted one of these in 30 years. A definite repeater!! Thank you!!
