Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

This is from a magazine article about Katharine Hepburn. It is, apparently, her family's.

Ingredients

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preparation

1. Melt together 1 stick butter and 2 squares unsweetened chocolate and take the saucepan off the heat.

2. Stir in 1 cup sugar, add 2 eggs and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and beat the mixture well.

3. Stir in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. (In the original recipe, 1 cup chopped walnuts is added here as well.)

4. Bake the brownies in a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan at 325°F for about 40 minutes.
You can cut these brownies into squares, once they have cooled, and eat them out of the pan, but it is so much nicer to pile them on a fancy plate, from which people are going to eat them with their hands anyway. If you want to smarten up your act you can put a square of brownie on a plate with a little blob of créme fraîche and a scattering of shaved chocolate.