Salt-Crusted Roast Beef

What a wonderful discovery!  With as much bread as I have baked in my life, I have never heard of wrapping it around a roast.  I was thumbing through the February 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine and found this delicious way to make roast beef.  The article told me "A salt crust works as an oven within an oven, so the beef cooks evenly and stays moist. "  So I tried it and was very satisfied with the results.

Here is what I used:
1 cup of mushrooms (canned or fresh will work)
1 teaspoon of garlic
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon dried or fresh thyme (I only had dried on hand)
2 tablespoons olive oil (if you are using fresh mushrooms)
2 1/2 to 3lb eye of round roast
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups salt (kosher works best, but regular table salt will also work)
3 tablespoons dried or fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 375.  Line a shallow baking pan with foil.  In a blender or food processor place mushrooms, garlic, pepper, thyme.  Blend or process until chopped.  If you are using fresh mushrooms, slowly add the olive oil until mixture is combined and begins to cling together.  Rub mushroom-garlic mixture on outside of roast; set aside. (note, you can chop up the mixture as fine as you want, mine is a bit course)

In large bowl combine flour, salt, and the 3 tablespoons thyme,  Stir in 1 cup water to form a dough.  If dough is too dry add additional water 1 tablespoon at a time (dough will be firm).

On a lightly floured surface roll dough to twice the size of roast.  Place roast on one side of dough.  Fold remaining dough over roast.  Wet seams with a little water and pinch to seal, making sure there are no holes.  Place the roast in the foil lined pan.

 Roast for 1 to 1 1/4 hour (135 degrees for rare; to check temperature, stick meat thermometer through salt crust.) Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes.  Remove salt crust and discard.  To serve, slice meat thinly.  Serve warm or chilled for sandwiches.  Store up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Some things to note:

I had my 3lb roast in the oven for 1 1/2 hours and it turned out medium, as you can see from the first picture.  Next time I think I will cook it just 15 minutes less, either way it is delicious)

Also, I think next time I will experiment with different herbs.  I think garlic and onion would be a good compliment with mushrooms.

The mushrooms are for flavoring the roast.  They turn out pretty salty from the crust so I don't advise eating them.  My husband liked them, but he also is the type of person who puts salt on this toast!