Mom H's Cocoa Brownies

This was from Mom's 1955 Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. I used this recipe all growing up.

3/4 C flour
1 C sugar
½ tsp salt
1/4 C cocoa
½ C soft butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
½ C chopped nuts, opt.

Grease an 8x8x2 inch pan.  Start oven 10 minutes before baking; set oven to 350F.  Sift flour, measure, resift 3 times with next three ingredients, the last time into a 3 qt. mixing bowl, or the large mixer bowl.  Add butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix together ingredients until well combined.  Use wooden spoon and beat 100 strokes per minute for 3 minutes by hand or 2 minutes medium speed on mixer.* Stir in nuts with a wooden spoon until just distributed.  Turn into prepared pan and spread out to even thickness.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until barely done.

*For fudge-like brownies, mix only until all ingredients are just blended. The instructions above are for cake-like brownies.