I made Ina Garten's deep-dish apple pie, and this refreshing dessert will impress everyone at parties this summer

To make Ina Garten's deep-dish apple pie filling, you'll need:

• Four pounds of Granny Smith apples
• One lemon to zest/Two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• One orange to zest/One tablespoon of freshly squeezed orange juice.
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus one teaspoon to sprinkle on top
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• One teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• One egg beaten with one tablespoon water for egg wash

And to make her homemade "Perfect Pie Crust," bakers should use:

• 12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• One teaspoon kosher salt
• One tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
• 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water

Most people may think of Chicago pizza when they hear the phrase "deep dish," but Garten flipped that notion on its head with her deep-dish apple pie recipe. But unlike typical deep dish dishes, Garten decided to build up rather than downwards.

"It's a lot of apples for this pie crust, but I like it piled high — a mile-high apple pie," she said in a video.

While other desserts like Martha Stewart's cinnamon rolls take several hours, this dish should take a total of two hours and 15 minutes to complete.

Garten suggested that people purchase four pounds of Granny Smith apples to create the sky-high dessert. Although she didn't say how many that was, I used a general rule of thumb to determine that four medium apples equaled about one pound and purchased 16 of them.

To start, I peeled, quartered, and cored each apple before placing them into a separate bowl. The recipe then recommended the quartered apples be cut into thirds for large chunks, but I cut some of mine into fourths and fifths to get smaller pieces.

With the proper tools, this step shouldn't take longer than 15 to 20 minutes.

Zesting one orange and one lemon is part two of creating the pie filling. With zest, it's good to avoid the white pith that separates the bright peel from the fruit. The pith is bitter and could leave an unwanted bite in the dessert.

I suggest using the same zested lemon and zested orange for the juice instead of entirely new fruits to avoid food waste. Fortunately, I still had leftover lemons after making a no-bake cheesecake, so I repurposed those for this recipe.

Add zests, lemon and orange juice, sugar, flour, salt, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice into the apple bowl to mix.

Garten's "Perfect Pie Crust" is said to yield two 10-inch crusts that can accommodate the deep dish. The recipe says to take the chilled butter, dice it, and place it back into the refrigerator while preparing the other ingredients.

Although Garten suggested that people use a food processor, a regular stand mixer or a food chopper that holds more than 3.5 cups should be good alternatives. I initially tried to use the Kitchenaid 3.5-cup Food Chopper I own, but the flour quickly overflowed, and I switched to my stand mixer.

Place flour, salt, and sugar into a machine fitted with a steel blade and pulse for a few seconds. Then, remove the butter from the refrigerator and add it to the dry ingredients alongside vegetable shortening.

"Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball," Garten's recipe said.

If using a stand mixer, make sure to scrape the bowl's sides as you go.

Place some flour on a board or a kitchen counter to roll the dough into a ball. I enclosed the dough in plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut them into two halves atop a well-floured board for the pie crusts.

I'll admit, my pie dough edges looked very jagged, so it took me a few attempts to get a circular shape I liked. My pie edges definitely won't win a county fair prize, but as long as it tastes good I can't complain.

Fold the dough in half, place inside a nine to ten-inch pie pan, and then unfold the dough to fit.

A few of my apples took an unfortunate tumble and ended up on the floor while I poured them onto the bottom crust, so my pie will be a bit lighter than expected.

The recipe said to spread egg wash around the bottom crust's edge to ensure the top crust will stay firmly in place. I then covered the pie with my top crust and trimmed the edges to about one inch over the rim.

Although still a bit rough, I fixed my edges as best I could by folding the top crust edge under the bottom crust and crimping it with a fork. After covering the top crust in egg wash, place the apple pie into the oven and bake for at least one hour.

My favorite aspect about this recipe is Garten's perfect pie crust! It was warm, flaky, and a pinch of sugar thrown on top made it undeniably delicious. I could see this crust being used for other pies and desserts because it's so simple yet versatile.

It's the type of crust that stirs nostalgic feelings of unbounded childhood summers and my grandmother's baking wafting from the kitchen.

As with every recipe, I would make a few changes to better fit my personal taste.

Fans of Granny Smith apples will be in dessert heaven, but sometimes the variety's sharp taste can be very tart and not my go-to since I have a sweet tooth. Granny Smith apples are known for keeping their taste and shape even after being in the oven, so I would instead add sweet, dry ingredients to balance the dish.

Brown sugar is an alternative that comes to mind, and I'd maybe cut back on some of the citrus added in the filing. Still, this is a classic apple pie that didn't shy away from using several pounds of fruit and stayed fairly true to the dessert — a win in a book!

Something important to note is that bakers should strive to use all four pounds in the filling. When I cut into my pie the first time, part of my top crust crumbled because there weren't enough apples to support the high-arching shape.

All that said, people would be hard-pressed to find a better rendition of this deep-dish apple pie at get-togethers this summer.