I made gibassier last evening. Fourteen brioche-rich rolls with both butter and olive oil and scented with orange flower water, anise seed, and candied orange peel that I made last winter. The previous night I made the preferment, and I completed the dough in the late morning, then two rises, and they baked in time for us to have gibassier for dinner.
After several experimental slashes, I figured out how to replicate the cutting and slashing we are used to from Pearl Bakery. (But then I created my own method.) The pastry looks different from each maker, though there are not many makers on this side of the world.
I had to do this bake because Pearl Bakery, one of our Portland destinations, has abruptly closed. Ten years ago I looked online for the Pearl’s distinctive pale sweet rolls, but I couldn’t find a reliable recipe. The day before yesterday I found a half dozen. The pastry traces to southern France. M.F.K. Fisher was given gibassier after Midnight Mass, but I do not have her recipe or the one pretending to be her recipe. I used the one from The New York Times that is measured entirely in grams—even the water and other liquid ingredients. That one might actually be PB’s recipe scaled back for a home oven.
Ten minutes of measuring and mixing Tuesday evening, and seven hours of mixing, rising, cutting, resting, forming, rising, and baking. (None of this was difficult, mostly waiting, but it did require attention over nearly 24 hours start-to-finish.) Then, hot from the oven, one last step: brush one at a time with melted unsalted butter and shake in a bag with fine sugar. Cool on a rack for as long as you can stand to wait.
They are light and not too sweet even with their dusting of sugar. Several recipes included a recommendation that they may be frozen and then thawed and warmed for 3-4 minutes at 375°. I froze eight of them once they fully cooled.
IMPERFECT PATIENCE 
Mmm. Delictably described! Love cooking projects that require just enough processes to punctuate a day!
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Thank you. It’s true, such a bake structures the day.
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I do not know what type of pastry gibassier is, never heard of it before.
On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 7:16 AM IMPERFECT PATIENCE wrote:
> janpriddyoregon posted: ” I made gibassier last evening. Fourteen > brioche-rich rolls with both butter and olive oil and scented with orange > flower water, anise seed, and candied orange peel that I made last winter. > The previous night I made the preferment, and I completed the do” >
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I pretty much described it. Pearl Bakery was famous for the pastry, and they are the bakery TNYT cited when they printed their recipe.
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Lovely, just imagining the orange blossom aroma. Sad to learn Pearl Bakery closed, it seemed such a fixture
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So true! We liked their multi-grain battard, the olive ciabatta, the rosemary and pecan panini, the chocolate chip cookies, and gibassier. Actually, everything was wonderful. (I like my rugelach best.) It is a great comfort to know I can make gibassier.
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Jan, you have made my favorite pastry! I sometimes find myself creating excuses to drive by the Pearl Bakery… oh dear. Apparently, gibassier is one of the 13 Christmas breads (desserts) made in Southern France. The scent of orange definitely captures the feeling of Southern France for me.
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Fifteen gibassiers is a dangerous bounty in my house with just the two of us. I saved half, froze them, and used them later to make a bread pudding and took it to a family brunch. It was very good, I think. I will have to be careful about when I make them. (Though they did freeze as promised and reheat pretty well.) I plan to create my own shape next time I bake, a little smaller. I candied orange peel the other day so I would be able to make them again.
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