I made two chicken pot pies last night, and the crust turned out like a giant cracker. Not soft and flaky at all like the store bought ones.
I think I have identified two probable reasons:
1) I skipped the egg was at the end. So the top layer was just really dry.
2) I probably overworked the dough. I used the pizza dough setting on my breadmaker which takes 90 minutes.
I used butter that was almost frozen. And I chilled my water in the freezer for 10 minutes before mixing. I think I did those parts right.
Next time I will try just working the dough by hand and handling it as little as possible. And I definitely won't skip the egg wash.
My question is: Next time I do this, how can I know if I've done it right without just simply cooking the pie directly. This was a TONNE of work. It would be nice if I could focus on mastering the crust before I make another pie. Can you just cook a crust by itself in the oven to see what happens?
Edit: After reading some related topics, there seems to be a technique called "blind baking" which may be what I'm looking for.
Should I just omit the filling and keep baking crusts until they start turning out the way i want?