This cheesy, golden, puffed casserole is all about the eggs

So it's basically a cheesy bread and butter pudding?

Looks good, I'd like to try it.

No idea what 'hearty' white bread looks like, though, or where to buy it. I'll use my usual homemade wholewheat with sunflower seeds. I know that's hearty.

That looks scrumptious.

10 slices hearty white sandwich bread

Hearty white bread? You can't put "hearty" and "white bread" in the same sentence. Hearty whole grain bread, yes.

You can't put "hearty" and "white bread" in the same sentence. Hearty whole grain bread, yes.

Quite the contrary. You most certainly can put "hearty" and "white bread" in the same sentence. What you need is a dense, European-style bread rather than the fluff-style loaves popular in Japan. If you use the latter in this recipe you will end up with egg and cheese mush.

This recipe is similar to another called "Christmas Morning Wife Saver" (look for it with Google) which adds bits of bacon to the mix. All sorts of other minced ingredients--crumbled dry sausage, smoked salmon, crab, whatever--can be added for creative variations on this theme.