Cream cheese makes these crunchy cranberry cookies irresistible

In "Quick & Dirty," Salon Food's Mary Elizabeth Williams serves up simplified recipes and shortcuts for exhausted cooks just like you — because quick and dirty should still be delicious. I fell in love with "The Pain d'Avignon Baking Book" not because I'm a big bread baker, nor because my annual summer vacations on Cape Cod make me any authority on one of its most beloved bakeries. I can't claim this recipe will yield an exact replica of the Pain d'Avignon cookie, but I hope these simplifications will motivate you to give it a try. * * * Inspired by The Pain d'Avignon Baking Book: A War, an Unlikely Bakery, and a Master Class in Bread by Uliks Fehmiu with Kathleen Hackett Cranberry Pepita Cookies Yields 24 cookies Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Ingredients 2 sticks butter, room temperature 2 ounces cream cheese 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon flaky salt 2/3 cup dried cranberries 2 cups shelled, unsalted pepitas Optional: 2 tablespoons demerara sugar Directions Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.