About the Baker | Rockaway Con Canela

Hi, I'm Sasha

It started with brioche, not cinnamon rolls

I've taken pastry and baking courses on and off most of my life, and the thing I keep coming back to is enriched dough: the butter-and-egg-heavy stuff that takes its time and doesn't forgive being rushed. Brioche especially. Cinnamon rolls are what happened when I pointed all of that at something sweet. And honestly, you can't go wrong with a cinnamon roll.

There's no recipe handed down to me here. This one came out of adjusting brioche recipe after brioche recipe until the crumb was right, and then building the swirl to match.

Sasha at her kitchen counter — Sasha, in the kitchen everything comes out of.

The part that actually took work

The regular roll was the easy one. What I set out to do was make the vegan roll, the roll without gluten, and the higher-protein roll just as good, not "good, considering." That's been the personal challenge, and it's why every type costs the same. None of them is a compromise version.

The vegan one might be the best thing on this menu. It's top five of anything I've ever baked, and I don't say that as a vegan.

Why Rockaway

I live here. I grew up in Ozone Park, ten minutes up the road, and spent my summers out on this beach long before I lived on it. My family works here too (in the local schools and running a business a few blocks away), so this peninsula isn't a location I picked, it's the one I'm already in. Being part of this community instead of visiting it is the whole reason this is a Rockaway bakery and not just a bakery.

Why "con canela"?

Because that's the whole idea: with cinnamon. It's the one ingredient every single thing on the menu is built around, and the reason the roll on the logo is the only logo this place was ever going to have.

The flavors

Two of the three are family

Classic

The one everything else gets measured against. If the classic isn't right, nothing else on the menu means anything.

Cafecito

My Dominican side, and a coffee habit I'm not going to defend. Cafecito goes straight into the filling.

Cardamom Saffron

From my husband Jamal's side, Pakistani-American, and the flavors that live in that family's kitchen. It turns out they belong in a cinnamon roll.

A finished Con Canela cinnamon roll on a plate at home — That's powdered-sugar glaze: no cream cheese, no dairy.

How I bake

A few things I decided early

These aren't marketing lines. They're actual constraints I built the menu around.

Same price, every type

Vegan, made-without-gluten, and macro-friendly rolls cost exactly what the regular ones cost. Dietary needs aren't an upsell.

Glaze, not frosting

A simple powdered-sugar glaze on every roll. No cream cheese, no dairy frosting: it keeps the rolls shelf-stable and safe to hand over.

No chocolate, anywhere

Not a single recipe uses it. That's a deliberate choice that keeps the whole menu inside what a home bakery can safely produce.

Baked to order, never stocked

Order only, 24 hours minimum. Nothing is baked ahead and nothing sits waiting for a buyer.

The kitchen

On the books, labeled, and run like a business

Rockaway Con Canela operates under New York State's Home Processor program, the state program that covers shelf-stable baked goods made in a home kitchen. Registration is filed and pending confirmation.

That program shaped the menu from the first day. The powdered-sugar glaze instead of cream cheese frosting, no chocolate in any recipe, nothing that depends on refrigeration to stay safe. Those are the state's rules, and the recipes were built to sit inside them rather than around them.

Every order goes out with a printed label: the full ingredient list in descending order by weight, net quantity, and all nine major allergens. If you want that breakdown before you order rather than after, just ask and I'll send it.

Ask me anything

Meet the baker