The Perfect Chocolate Chip - Milk Chocolate and Walnut

Continuing on with the theme of perfect chocolate chips I am following the white chocolate and cranberry recipe with this milk chocolate and walnut one. I took the biscuits in last week after forgetting to do my home work the night before because I was so busy baking (good start to the new term?) and I think (and hope) they went down very well, everyone seemed to like them which was a good thing although I did have a dream the night before that I ended up poisoning everyone in my class with my horrid baking, luckily this didn't happen!
I had a very big realisation on the weekend which I thought I would share just in case anyone else was as stupid as me and has been making this mistake. I use a lot of American recipes when I'm baking and almost every recipe calls for baking soda. Well, I have now been searching grocery stores for baking soda for about a year without any luck! I usually end up trying to find a different recipe or using double the amount of baking powder instead. This weekend after nearly refusing another recipe due to the fact that it called for baking soda and I still could not find any I realised that baking soda and bicarbonate of soda ARE THE SAME THING! Now I know this I realise it was probably the stupidest mistake of my whole life but it still caused me a lot of pain and trouble over the years and I thought on the off chance that anyone else is making this mistake I would share my story.
Okay, now that embarrassment is over, here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate and Walnut Cookies - adapted from All Recipes
Ingredients: - 226 grams of butter (1 cup)
- 1 cup of caster sugar
- 1 cup of light brown soft sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups of plain flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda (or bicarbonate of soda)
- 2 teaspoons of hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 2 cups of milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F)
2. Cream together the butter caster sugar and light brown soft sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time then add the vanilla extract.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add to the mixture along with the salt.
5. Stir in the flour then gradually add the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Drop spoonfull's onto an ungreased baking tray making sure to space them far apart (they really spread out!)
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges turn golden brown.
Love Scarlett.