What you need
Both batches use the same three things, just in different amounts. In the quicker version Lynn starts with one and a half cups of sugar and half a cup of water. In the larger version she uses two cups of white sugar in a real thick bottom pot so the sugar does not scorch and one cup of hot water straight out of the sink. Both finish with two cups of powdered milk.
On the sugar, Lynn is careful about what she does not know. She uses plain white sugar and says she cannot tell you how it would do with cane sugar or the other kinds. For mixing she uses a KitchenAid stand mixer with the whisk attachment, and she says a hand blender will do the job if that is what you have.
Cooking the syrup
The first half of this is nothing but sugar and water on the stove. It looks cloudy at first because the sugar has not started dissolving yet, so she lets it come up to a simmer. In the larger batch she keeps stirring the whole time so the sugar does not stick to the bottom while she waits on the color to change.
What she is waiting for is clear syrup. In the two cup batch she stops when it goes from foggy to crystal clear and takes it straight off the heat. In the smaller batch she carries it a step further and cooks it until it picks up just a tiny tint of color, which she says took her around three to maybe five minutes and left it thickened a tiny bit.
Whipping in air, then the milk
The syrup goes to the mixer next, and Lynn warns to be careful because this stuff is boiling hot. She runs it on a sort of medium high to put a lot of air into the sugar water in one video and on a medium low in the other. If you are using a Ninja or a regular little blender, she says you have to wait until the syrup cools, while a stand mixer can take it while it is still warm.
She is watching the surface the whole time. When the little bubbles start to form and it changes to a white look, that is the sign to move on. Then the powdered milk goes in slowly, going by what the mixture looks like instead of dumping it all at once, and in that batch she ended up using the whole two cups. The larger recipe takes two cups of instant powdered milk as well and needs only a few minutes to look and be just like the canned kind.
Between blends she stops and scrapes. She raises the whisk and scrapes the bowl down so there are no dry pieces of powdered milk left in the bottom, then puts it back down and blends again until it is smooth.
Keeping it and using it
Lynn keeps hers in a small container and uses it up in whatever she needed it for, and any leftovers go in the fridge. She points out that because it is made with powdered milk, it keeps a little bit longer than it would if you used regular whole milk. In the other video she puts a number on it and says that refrigerated, it should last anywhere from seven to ten days.
One batch of the larger recipe is the same as buying two cans, and she adds that it would make great homemade coffee creamer too. The quick version, start to finish, she calls about ten minutes. Both walkthroughs are worth having open in the kitchen, the ten minute version and the three ingredient version, and if yours does not look like hers you can ask Lynn.