Cheese Strata: no really, the good kind

Fourish years ago, Tjett's mom gave us a huge packet of her recipes. On the one hand, this was great...we got tons of Christmas cookie recipes that were much needed. However, the recipes for meal-food weren't as spectacular. One recipe was for Cheese Strata. It contained white bread, cheese, and milk. It was a very classic "Tjett's Family" recipe, as they're not big vegetable or exciting food eaters. But it sounded reasonable, so we made it one night.

It. Was. Disgusting.

As in, we didn't even bother wrapping up the leftovers. We just threw it out. I NEVER do that. But it was awful.

Fast-forward to a couple years ago. We went to Tjett's dad's house for Christmas (and brought Tia...that's a disaster for another day). One morning, his step-mom made us some kind of delicious eggy, bready, cheesy thing for breakfast. We asked what it was. You guessed it, it was Cheese Strata. "No way!" we said. "Way," she didn't really say. So we got the recipe, and it's become a staple for us for brunchy potlucks. And I'm going to share it, here:

Delicious Cheese Strata

The recipe calls for 12 slices of bread, top crusts removed. I am a fan of using grocery-store-bakery sliced French bread, or last time I used "Mountain Boule" (I don't even know if that's a thing). Regardless, I think the better the bread (tasty, a little chewy, well-structured), the better this will turn out. Probably a white bread, however.

Anyway, cut out 12 "doughnuts" and "holes" of your bread. I usually just take a shot glass to the bread, collect my "holes" and then just use the remaining square-ish pieces of bread as my "doughnuts". If the bread is large enough, I can usually get two "doughut/hole" pairs out of 1 piece.

Fit scraps, or cut-up remaining bread, in the bottom of the pan.

Grate 12-16 oz. cheddar cheese over the bread scraps.

Put 2 cups of chopped ham or turkey ham over the cheese...the last time I made this, I couldn't find turkey ham, so I used all 16 oz. of cheese and forewent the meat.

Arrange your bread doughnuts and holes over the top. I typically fit 4x3 of the doughnuts, and then put the holes around the edge.

Mix:
6 eggs
3 1/2 c. milk
2 T instant/minced onion
1/2 t salt
1/4 t dry mustard

Pour the egg/milk mixture over the entire thing, making sure all the bread on top gets wet.

Cover, refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 deg. F.

Bake for 55 minutes.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

A caveat on the time...The recipe card she gave us says to "check doneness with toothpick in the center". The problem is that this isn't cake or brownies. My toothpicks ALWAYS come out a little milky...even after 75 minutes... and I'm not sure what they're supposed to be. Generally, If the cheese is melted and the bread is a little browned, it's probably done. Don't be freaked out by any milk that comes up if you push on it...having it stand for a little while takes care of it.