Tortes de Acietes

My (super talented/gorgeous) friend Leanne put me onto the most glorious Spanish olive oil biscuits a few years ago.  Called Tortes de Acietes (cakes of oil!) they are made in a factory in a town in southern Spain according to the same recipe first used by a lady named Ines Rosales over 100 years ago.  In Melbourne, you can buy them at Casa Iberica, the Spanish grocers on Johnston St in Fitzroy for the cost of $8 for 6 biscuits.  

The thing to know about these biscuits is: they are so so simple.  Their incredibleness lies in the way they ABSOLUTELY NAIL the key elements of their simplicity.

1. Texture - they have this snap when you bite into them.  Flaky, crunchy, light yet with substance. The snap is very important indeed.
2. Just a hint of sweetness - They are extremely plain but dusted with sugar so that you get a hint of sweetness that isn't in anyway overpowering.  So you can eat heaps.
3. Fennel seed - I may have mentioned elsewhere on this blog my devotion to fennel and fennel-related things, with their subtle, aromotic aniseed.
4. They are JUST BRILLIANT with a cup of tea.

Today being my last day of holidays, I decided I need some to get me through my re-insertion to working life.  So I rode my bike to Casa Iberica.  But when I got there the man said they didn't have any deliveries over the holidays. Needless to say, I was totes devo.

So I decided to attempt them. This was no easy task, as there are few recipes around on the internets, and the original Ines Rosales recipe is fiercely guarded by those Spanish pixies who continue to work her magic.  After scouring various other bloggers' attempts, I found one I liked the look of and tweaked it very slightly.  And it more or less worked! Oh, fabrous day!  I have texted Leanne.  There shall be cups of tea aplenty.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups strong baking flour
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil (plus extra for brushing on the tortes)
• 100ml orange juice (pulp free or strained through a sieve)
• orange rind
• fennel seeds
• raw sugar

Heat the oil over a low heat with the orange rind.  This will allow the orange oil to infuse in the oil.  Once the rind starts to brown remove it immediately, and turn off the heat.  Crush a teaspoon of the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle and add to the cooling oil.  Once cool, add the orange juice to the mix.

While the oil is heating, sieve the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Then add the wet mixture and mix into a dough.  Form into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 225 degrees C.  On a lightly floured surface, take a small ball of the dough (about a walnut size) and press down.  Then, using a floured rolling pin, roll out until extremely thin (a millimetre or less).  Brush liberally with olive oil, sprinkle thoroughly with raw sugar and add a few fennel seeds.  Then place on a tray lined with baking paper and put in the oven.

These only need to bake for five or six minutes before they will start to brown at the edges and burning is around the corner, so stay vigilant! I discovered that the time to roll out three more tortes was the amount of time needed to bake one round.

Leave them to cool - this is when they will harden into that wonderful, cracking, snapping morsel you have been dreaming of all day.  Then eat them, one after the other, incessantly, because of how delicious they are and how greedy you are and it's the last day of holidays and you don't care what anyone thinks of you! You're free! FREE TO EAT TORTES!