Question for all you bakers out there!

[Megatron]

I am not a great baker, but I'm trying my best.

I have plain flour but I need self raising but when I look on t'internet there are masses of different opinions on how much baking powder I should add. Delia said 1 tsp for every 110g of plain flour. Nigella says 1 tsp for every 150 g of plain flour and another sight said 4 tsp for every 150 g! I have NO idea.

And while I'm here. I'm guessing that baking powder is a raising agent (obvs) but what is bicarbonate of soda for? And why do some recipes ask for both? I know I should know all this but I'm fairly new to baking and not really got a scooby do what I'm doing.

Ooh what are you making?

Personally I'd go with Delia or Nigella on this, 4 tsp per 150g sounds like way too much and apart from anything would probably leave a strange taste.

Baking powder is sodium bicarbonate (which is the raising agent) mixed with various other ingredients, most importantly an acid which is needed in the chemical reaction that causes the rise. Bicarbonate of soda (you might sometimes see it called baking soda) is just sodium bicarbonate and is normally used in recipes that already have an acid in them.

@NotInTheMorning thank you! It's only choc chip cookies so nothing exactly challenging but it's good to have a rule of thumb about these things isn't it. Everyone always says your ingredients should be exact when baking but there seem to be so many variations on the same thing and I'm not an experienced enough baker to guess!

I'd go with a teaspoon if I was using 110g or 150g of flour! Choc chip cookies will be ok with a bit less, so id err towards a bit to little rather than a bit too much.
4tsp is far too much!

The recipe calls for 250 SR flour so if I put 2 tsp in that should be OK?