Chocolate Wafers:
8 ounces butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
Chocolate Peppermint Coating:
1 pound semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon natural peppermint extract
Preheat your oven to 350. Place the rack in the middle.
In a mixer cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple times if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract and then the salt and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy, sort of like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking, it might still be a bit crumbly, and that's o.k.
Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and kneed it a couple of times to bring it together into one nice, smooth mass. Place the ball of dough into a large plastic bag and flatten it into a disk roughly 3/4-inch thick. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.
Remove the dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin, about 1/8-inch. You can either roll it out between two sheets of plastic, or dust your counter and rolling pin with a bit of flour and do it that way. Stamp out cookies using a 1 1/2-inch cutter. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a baking rack if you've got one.
Use a double boiler over low heat. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract, adding a few more drops if desired.
Coat the cookies one at a time and then gently set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to set. Drop one cookie into the chocolate and (using a fork) carefully make sure it gets fully coated. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even coating of chocolate. Place on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set.
Make 3 or 4 dozen cookies.