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Scones with honey. Jam is also a favoured topping.

Scones are also commonly served with jam and clotted cream (commonly known as a cream tea).

The scone is a British snack of Scottish origin. A small quickbread made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, usually with baking powder as a leavening agent. British scones are often lightly sweetened, but may also be savoury. In the U.S., scones are drier and larger, and typically sweet.

The pronunciation across the United Kingdom is varied. Some sections of the population (nearly two thirds of the British population and 99% of the Scottish population, according to one academic study^[1]) pronounce it as /skɒn/ (to rhyme with gone, the U English Pronunciation), and the rest pronounce it /skəʊn/ (to rhyme with cone, the Non-U English pronunciation). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word scone derives perhaps from the Middle Dutch schoonbrood (fine white bread), from schoon (pure, clean) and brood (bread). The word is attested in the Scots language long before it was in more general use in the English language.

British scones closely resembles a North American biscuit (many recipes are, in fact, identical) — itself not to be confused with the English biscuit, which equates to the American cookie. In the United States, there is a growing tendency to refer to sweet variations as "scones" (perhaps under influence from espresso bars, where they are popular fare), while those eaten as part of savoury meals are known as "biscuits". American "scones" are often baked to a dry and somewhat crumbly texture, and are typically large and rectangular; more like a cross between a cookie and a muffin than a biscuit. In Canada, both tend to be called "biscuits" or "tea biscuits".

British scones frequently include raisins, currants, cheese or dates. In the United States, scones sold by coffee shops often include fillings such as cranberries, blueberries, nuts, or even chocolate chips. More original fillings include smarties. However, most fillings tend to be spices, including cinnamon and poppy. In both Britain and the U.S., mass-produced scones tend to be doughier than home-made scones.

Clockwise from bottom: Hot buttered tattie scones next to a cheese scone, shiny and flat treacle scones, and a milk scone above a fruit scone.

In Scotland and Ulster, savoury varieties of scone include soda scones, also known as soda farls, and potato scones, normally known as tattie scones, which resemble small, thin savoury pancakes made with potato flour and resemble the Jewish latke. Potato scones are most commonly served fried in a full Scottish breakfast or an Ulster fry.

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Scone

• Welsh cake
• Bannock

1. ^ Wells, J.C. "Pronunciation Preferences in British English: A New Survey". University College London, 1998