There was an article in a Hobby Farm Home magazine about making butter using your Kitchenaid mixer. I don't remember which one it was but was last year. I don't know if it would be on their website or not. I can remember making butter in a jar too. My grandparents had milk cows. So I got to drink milk straight from the cow and it was soooo good. The milk these days doesn't taste like it has ever seen a cow.LOL I wish I could find fresh milk but here it is illegal to sell it unpasteurized. I miss some of the good ole days.LOL

I make my butter in the kitchenaid mixer, flat beater instead of the wire whip, low speed.  Mine's a 6 quart so I need at least a quart of cream for it to work properly, but you wouldn't need so much with a smaller bowl.  I just toss a dishtowel over the top of them mixer to catch splashes and let it go while I do something else in the kitchen.  When it's close to butter, the sound will change and it's time to check it.  The time varies, depending on temperature, the cream itself, and . . . I don't know, the phase of the moon?

I have made butter in my food processer. I think the secret is to have your cream just at room or body temperature. Too cold will produce whipped cream and too hot will keep the fat particles from sticking together. I use non iodized salt if I salt it. And make sure all the milk or whey is washed out or it will sour quicker. Reminds me of Mondays when I was a kid. That was bread and butter making days.

I found the article in Hobby Farm Home Jan/Feb09. It uses2 pints heavy whipping cream. It says to let it set out for 12 hours until it reaches about 70 degrees. This ripens the cream helping it to develop the acid content required to produce a pleasant buttery flavor. It says it may smell slightly sour. It says to chill the mixing bowl of a Kitchenaid mixer. Pour the cream into the chilled bowl and turn on medium speed. It says the cream will thicken and form peaks and then turn a bit yellow and start to separate. It says to turn down the mixer to low and beat a few more seconds until the butter starts to clump it says it only takes about 5 min or so all together. It says to strain thru a cheese cloth lined strainer pushing with a spatula to get all the butter milk out. To rinse return butter to mixing bowl and pour cold water over it and work  using a fold and press motion with a spatula. Water will be cloudy pour thru fresh cheese cloth in the strainer. Return it to the mixing bowl and repeat until the water is clear. It says it can take 8 to 10 rinses. Make sure all the water is pressed out and put in container to store. It says to add salt or herbs if you want before storing. It says it keeps in the frig 2 weeks and in the freezer 4 months after that it may loose some flavor. It used the wire whip attachment. Hope this helps.

So, making butter.  It's a cinch!  Anybody can do it if they have 2C of cream (if you're buying it at the store, get heavy whipping cream), a quart jar (with a lid), and 15-30 minutes of time.  Oh, it pretty much needs to be cow's milk, as other milks like sheep & goat don't have enough butterfat to make it worth your time.  I have a partial share in a dairy cow, and get about 2C of fresh raw cream every week, so that's what I use.

Once you put your cream in the quart jar, tighten the lid carefully, then do one of two things:  Leave it out on the counter for 6-8 hrs, so that the cream sours juuuuuuuuust slightly and comes to room temperature.  When I use this method, it takes me about 15 minutes to make butter.  The other method (for those who fear the food-spoilage-monster) is to start making your butter with the cream directly out of the fridge.  This method takes me about twice as long for the cream to turn into butter.

Now all you have to do is start shaking the jar!  You don't have to shake it vigorously, just shake it steadily, so that you can feel the cream distinctly slosh against the top, then against the bottom of the jar.  After about 10 minutes, you will see tiny grains of butter beginning to form on the sides of the jar.  A little bit later, all of a sudden, your butter will all glom together into a big bunch in the middle of the jar, and you have butter!

Next, you need to wash the butter.  I know this sounds odd, but the butter you've made is a very loose mass of teeny butter pieces, and the holes inbetween the pieces are filled with the whey (the "real" buttermilk).  If we leave it there, it makes your butter taste funny, and not keep as well.  So, carefully pour off the whey (you can keep it if you like for bread or other baking), then pour the butter into a medium-sized smooth sided bowl.  Bowls with deep straight sides work best.  The absolute best is a wooden butter tub or bowl, but those are hard to come by.  Using the back of a spoon, start mooshing your butter around, pressing it against the sides of the bowl.  You'll see how much liquid comes out.  Run COLD (important!!!!) water over the butter, then moosh the butter around some more.  You'll see how the water gets cloudy and looks like milk.  Pour that off (down the drain is fine), and do that several more times until the water stays mostly clear.  Now work as much water as you can out of your butter, pouring it off as you go.  Once you have as much out as you can, you can either salt (I use kosher) or not salt your butter.  If you salt it, you can leave it out on the counter without worrying about spoilage as long as the temps in your house are moderate.  Put your butter into it's forever home (I use a Tupperware container, but am wanting to try out a ButterBell), and there you have it! 

As far as amounts, 2C of heavy cream should yield apx 1/4C of butter.  I use about 1/4 t. of salt for that much butter.  YMMV!

So, that's it!  Good, fresh, healthy, reliable homemade butter is within anyone's grasp!  I hope my directions are clear, if not, just ask and I'll try to clarify.