Bradshaw Cookies are a type of sour cream cookie with cream cheese frosting. Soft, pillowy, and not very sweet, they are perfect for cutting out into seasonal shapes and decorating with frosting.

This recipe is part of a Virtual Cookie Exchange with other bloggers so go check out all the recipes! The links are at the bottom of this post. You can also search for the cookies on social media with the hashtag #VirtualCookieExchange. Jump to Recipe

Oven Blues

There’s nothing like a party to get you back in the groove. I haven’t posted since Thanksgiving for various reasons.

• The oven is STILL broken. It broke the day before Thanksgiving and is still dead.
• I have no appetite and my digestive system is way out of whack.
• My wrists and arms needed a vacation, they were achy, swollen, and hurt really bad, especially when working on the computer and phone.
• I’m trying to catch a cold and feel pretty icky.

I’m not going to lie, even though I’m happy to be participating, these were not fun to make. I had to pack all the ingredients and utensils up and go to my sister’s house to use her oven. Only when I got there, I realized I didn’t have the key to get in.

I was not feeling very well at all either so the whole enterprise felt like a fiasco. But I got it done, slept 12 hours, and am feeling a little better. Just in time for the party.

Bradshaw Cookies: A Sour Cream Cookie with Cream Cheese Frosting

Do a search for Bradshaw Cookies on Google and you won’t find much. You will get search results for cookware connected to Bradshaw International Inc. (a major housewares supplier) or maybe some Carry Bradshaw references. I finally got smart this year and searched for sour cream cookies and got results that are somewhat similar to this old family recipe.

This is the last of the family cookie recipes. I’ve shared all the others we make every single year except for these. I always like to imagine how these cookies came to be named Bradshaw Cookies.

Did someone use Bradshaw cookie sheets and the name stuck? Did someone in my family have friendly next-door neighbors, the Bradshaw’s, who shared their famous family cookie recipe? Who knows, but they are definitely different enough to be curious.

They aren’t very sweet at all and are almost biscuit-like in their thickness but they are very soft. The sugary sweetness of cream cheese frosting and its thickness matches the cookies well. I feel like royal icing would just be absorbed into the cookie and wouldn’t stand up.

We usually make the cream cheese frosting, dye it different colors, and then store it in airtight containers. Whenever we feel like a cookie, we can decorate just one. This makes the cookies last longer.

Now go be a cookie monster and check out all the other yummy holiday treats.

Virtual Cookie Exchange Participants

What Should I Make For · Ugly Sweater Gingerbread Cookies

The Sweet Nerd · Gingerbread Cookies – All Spruced Up

Girl Heart Food · Orange Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

The Beach House Kitchen · Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Beyond Mere Sustenance · Brandy-Spiked Mexican Hot Chocolate

Seasons & Suppers · Lemon Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

Ciao Chow Bambina · Lemon Drop Italian Cookies

Contemplating Sweets · Hedgehog Cookies

The Busy Spatula · S’mores Cookies

Salt & Lavender · Vegan Gingerbread Cookie Bars

5 from 7 votes

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Bradshaw Cookies: A Sour Cream Cookie with Cream Cheese Frosting

Bradshaw Cookies are a type of sour cream cookie with cream cheese frosting. Soft, pillowy, and not very sweet, they are perfect for cutting out into seasonal shapes and decorating with frosting.

Course Desserts

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes

Total Time 21 minutes

Servings 35 to 40 cookies

Author Megan Wells

Ingredients

Bradshaw Cookies

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter (salted), room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 ounces sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Bradshaw Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  

2. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter on high speed with an electric mixer until it’s smooth. 

3. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed until just combined. 

4. In a separate small bowl, mix the sour cream and baking soda together. Set aside. 

5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder together. 

6. Alternate beating in the sour cream mixture and the flour mixture into the creamed sugar and butter until everything is combined. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you will have to mix the flour in by hand eventually. Just knead the flour into the dough until there are no streaks.  

7. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until it is 1/4 of an inch thick. You might have to add more flour depending on the texture of the dough. If you roll it out and try to cut out shapes but the dough stretches and breaks, you need to add more flour. Keep adding flour, kneading, and rolling it out until you can cut out sturdy shapes.

8. Cut out the dough into various shapes. Take the leftover dough, roll it into a ball, and roll it out again to cut out more shapes. Repeat until there is no dough left.

9. Bake on cookie sheets for 5 to 7 minutes. The bottoms should be a very light brown color and the tops should still be pure white. They won't look cooked. Transfer to cooling racks and let the cookies cool completely before frosting. Store unfrosted cookies in an airtight container or in a ziplock bag. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. 

2. Gradually add the powdered sugar in, beating until smooth. 

3. Mix in the vanilla extract. Separate the frosting into different equal sized portions and use food coloring to dye it different colors. You can store the frosting in airtight containers in the fridge and frost the cookies as needed.