The Danish Secret to a Happy, Cozy Morning

In case you weren’t around this morning when I walked through my neighborhood hitting a pan with a wooden spoon announcing it, I have a new obsession. It’s called “hygge,” pronounced “hooga.” Hygge, according to The Little Book of Hyggeby Meik Wiking, hygge is “the Danish way to live well.” It’s hard to get too specific when it comes to hygge, because it’s just that feeling. The feeling of being wrapped in a blanket or wearing cozy socks or having a good conversation in a dimly lit room. You can curate hygge in your everyday life through objects in your home, clothes on your body, and of course, the food on your plate. Particularly at breakfast.

It’s pretty easy to get the hang of hygge, since it’s exactly what we all start doing during those first few weeks of fall: pulling out our sweaters, making warm food, and finding every reason in the world to stay in.If you’re not fully ready to dedicate yourself to this cozy Danish lifestyle (perhaps you are “busy” and have “a job”), then maybe try taking it in bite-size chunks. When it comes to breakfast, it takes just three simple steps to start your day off hygge.

You have to bake it yourself

While for many of us, breakfast is consumed on-the-go, a hygge breakfast means carving out some time to not just eat food, but also to make it. Before you give up right here right now, a hygge breakfast doesn’t mean being a professional chef. According to Wiking, “the more rustic, the more hygge it is.” What’s more important is the slow process of creating the food,and the smell the fills the room because of it. Maybe try these sausage cinnamon rolls?

It has to be a pastry or cake

Any philosophy that requires me to eat cake is something I can immediately get behind. The Danes’ obsession with cake results in a pretty satisfying breakfast, since it can include anything from a “sport cake”(essentially a giant mound of cream puffs and whipped cream) to a traditional danish pastry, infused with butter and filled with something gooey.

You should wash it down with a hot drink

Most of us start our day with coffee or tea, but had no idea we were participating in the act that 86% of Danes most associate with hygge. Infact, Wiking reports that the Danish are the fourth biggest coffee drinkers in the world, consuming 33% more coffee per capita than Americans. This probably has something to do with how a cup of coffee feels in your hands —especially on a newly crisp fall morning, accompanied by the smell of sugar and a big, whopping slice of cake. Keeping it hygge seems pretty great, really. Those Danes have it figured out.