Foillowing yesterday's Torta disaster, I went to Holiday Market this morning where Nancy, who looks after the cheeses and various gourmet delights, gave me a quick education in Torta de Aceite. She carries two brands, in both sweet and savory versions, and informed me that the best way to enjoy the sweet was with a bit of goat cheese and some fig paste. The combination of salt and sweet swas, she said, heavenly.
I bought the Tortas and some goat cheese, as well as some cold cuts, and headed to my morning Saturday coffee group for a taste test. The general opinion of the assembled group? Heavenly indeed. And a review of the ingredients on the package revealed what I'd supected- every one of the recipes I found on the net were absolutely wrong.
Torta de Aceite is most assuredly not made with baking powder- this is a yeast dough, with a lot of olive oil (24%, according to the package), rolled very thin and baked. The sweet versions add anise, sesame, sugar, almonds, and sometimes orange peel. Later this week I'm going to try this, using my basic wet yeast dough, but loading it with oil. I'll make a batch of savory ones and a batch of sweet.
8 comments:
I'd be very interested to know if you come up with a recipe that works for this. I've only read about tortas de aceite online (I live in LA and haven't noticed them for sale), and I'd love to make them myself... but you're right, I can only find recipes that don't seem quite right -- like this one http://www.recipeland.com/recipe/46330/
It has no yeast or chemical leavening, and I have a feeling it might be a waste of olive oil and wine to try it...
I tried that recipe- that's the one that resulted in nasty piecrust. I don't know what it is,, but it's not Torta de Aceite.
Since writing that entry I tried making a basic yeast dough, adding as much olive oil as I could work into the dought, and then rolling out small rounds and baking them. The result was closer to the texture of the Torta I bought. I still need to work on the shape and texture.
my wife is a baker and we are working on this too - keep trying! They are soooo good!
What about the Torta de Aceite with almonds ? paired with organic dark chocolate they are to die for
The recipes you folks found on the internet is more for a cookie than a cracker. I read the recipe in Spanish from the "Las Recetas de Mama" website, and you are right, the "tortas de aceite" from Spain are made from a yeast dough. I posted a translation of the recipe, and I haven't seen it appear on this blog yet. Sorry I couldn't translate the measurememts from grams to American cup measurements. They only cook by metric weights in Spain and France. One gram equals .035 ounces, so I put those amounts in parentheses. I also didn't know the temperature to set the American oven. I would try 325 and watch the tortas until done crispy but not burned.
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA
I beg to differ with the comment that tortas de aceite are most definitely not made with baking powder...you've got a photo of an Ines Rosales torta package right at the top of the page, and I've got one right here for the same brand...ingredients list says nada about yeast - it's got baking powder, in addition to unbleached wheat flour, EVOO, sugar, sesame and anise seeds, salt, and natural anise essence.
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