Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Start by chopping pistachios and dried cranberries into a very fine mixture. If too big, the cookie dough will get fragile in these spots, so take your time to chop everything small. Set aside.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add all the ingredients: almond flour, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, almond extract, chopped mixture made above, and salt if desired.

Combine the ingredients with a spatula first, then lightly oil your hands with mild-flavored oil, and squeeze the dough to bring the ingredients together, and form a cookie dough ball. If too wet, you can add more almond flour. If dry and crumbly, add a little more melted coconut oil.

Now you have two options. Fast option: roll 1 ½ tablespoons of cookie dough into a ball, place it on the prepared baking sheet, leaving one inch between each cookie. Flatten the top with the palm of your hand. They won't spread as they keep the shape you give them.

Log option: Place the dough onto a large piece of cling wrap, roll it into a log, and tightly encase the dough in the wrap to form a log.

Refrigerate it for 15 minutes to firm up, then slice 10 pieces of dough. It's normal if it falls apart a bit as you cut the cookies. The nuts/dried fruits make the dough fragile. But the dough is soft like playdough, which means you can simply work the dough with lightly oiled hands. Press into the palm of your hands to firm it up, and pat the sides with your fingers to reshape it into a rectangle. Make sure it's firm.

Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.

Bake the shortbread for 12-14 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until slightly golden on the sides.

Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes, at room temperature to firm up, then transfer to a cooling rack to completely cool down.