This month, Tasting Table is sweet on holiday cookies. This is the third in our 12-part series, the 12 Days of Cookies:

It's always the same when a cookie craving hits: Our yen outpaces the rate at which butter is able to soften on our counter.

A solution: Chuck the butter and use other fats instead.

David Siegel has done exactly that, delving elbow-deep into the alternative-fat world with his one-man operation, Fats & Flour.

For Siegel, fats act as a canvas on which to build recipes. Duck fat makes friends with oatmeal, pistachio and white chocolate, and gingersnaps take a turn toward devils on horseback territory with the addition of bacon fat, dates, walnuts, cayenne and ground pepper. Lard shows itself off in Chinese five-spice cookies and toasted-flour shortbread.

Our favorite of Siegel's bunch is the pitch-dark double-chocolate sea-salt cookies (click here for the recipe). The smart addition of extra-virgin olive oil creates a cookie acceptable to vegetarian friends and one that is a snap to bake.

Topped with extra-large flakes of sea salt, this cookie is a suitably adult ending to any meal or simply on its own.

Find Fats & Flour at the Brooklyn Flea on 12/17, 12/18, 12/21 and 12/22

Check out all of Tasting Table's 12 Days of Cookies recipes by clicking here.