When money is tight but you still want to go out for a treat or take something home that's something special, dessert is the way to go. And you don't need to spend a lot to get the very best.

On a dizzying dessert-buying spree, crisscrossing our region in a hunt for sugary things, I was pleased to learn that my decadent ways were not breaking the bank.

Two people can enjoy excellent pastries, cakes or cookies with a reasonable beverage and spend less than $20, often less than $10. In one case, I'll show how to combine beverage and dessert in a single cup for $3 – a hot chocolate you can truly savor.

For those in the dating game, dessert is especially clever. Score points while pinching pennies.

There is much to admire about bakers and others in the pastry arts. These folks generally are perfectionists, have an eye for art and work crazy hours.

Unlike cooking, where you can often use a pinch of this and a little of that, adjusting flavor on the fly, baking calls for precision – weighing ingredients, checking temperatures, keeping an eye on time.

Here are my recommendations, aiming to cover a variety of dessert styles. If you have a dessert favorite, send me an e-mail, and I will mention it in Appetizers, The Bee's food and wine blog.

Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates

1801 L St., Suite 60, Sacramento; (916) 706-1738, www.gingerelizabeth.com

In the past two years, this attractive gourmet chocolate shop has become a mecca for those who appreciate quality and don't mind paying for it. It also offers a window into the world of chocolate making – they create everything in house, and you can watch them work.

Ginger Elizabeth Hahn is a prodigy. She grew up in Camino, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, worked with some renowned chocolatiers in New York and Chicago, returned to her roots, got married, opened her business, had a baby and, whew, she's only 28.

I often stop in after work and take home a couple of little desserts: the Gianduja cake ($5.50), a layered rectangle of bittersweet chocolate mousse with a delicious hazelnut bottom that has a pleasing little crunch; and the café cremeaux ($5), a beautiful dome of flourless chocolate espresso cake with orange-scented shortbread. Also try a Parisian macaron ($1.50), a little puff of air brimming with flavor.

We haven't even gotten to the reason the store exists – those handmade chocolates. You could take a trip around the world and find nothing better than what comes out of this shop on L Street. On the Web site, hover your cursor over the picture of each chocolate to learn its details. My favorites include the Palet D'Or, the Meyer lemon and the exotic Olmec spice.

The hot chocolate is excellent, made with high-quality chocolate. Choose housemade marshmallows or whipped cream, and you have a gourmet treat in a cup for three bucks in three versions. Try the Oaxacan spicy version for something extra-special.

Freeport Bakery

2966 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento; (916) 442-4256, www.freeportbakery.com

This is an institution revered for its cakes, which are available whole and by the slice. Marlene and Walter Goetzler bought the bakery in 1987. It just keeps getting better.

Marlene tells me customers often like to sample several cakes, taking advantage of the by-the-slice option, which is not that common. You might take home four different pieces and taste the range of flavors.

Among the most popular cakes of late is the caramel salt cake, a fudge cake with a layer of caramel sprinkled with pink Himalayan salt. They've been doing this for about six months and it is winning raves. Yes, good salt and chocolate go well together.

The other big hit for many is the Champagne cake – a foundation of buttermilk cake, strawberry custard mousse, butter cream frosting and, yes, real Champagne drizzled over the top.

Freeport's lemon bars, caramel bars and apple bars are big enough to cut in half and share, so don't limit yourself to tasting just one. The cookies are also very good.

Mirabelle European Pastry Café

7318 Winding Way, Fair Oaks; (916) 535-0100, http://mirabellecafe.com

This 4-year-old business features some of the most consistently excellent pastries I've tasted. Not only are they well balanced in flavor and texture, but they are little works of art.

Mirabelle is owned and operated by another dessert prodigy, 30-year-old George Aivazian, who combines his Old World baking heritage from Armenia with all the new skills he acquired since moving here to live the American dream.

"To be a good baker, you have to be a perfectionist, and you have to love food," he told me in a recent phone chat. "This is not about the money. This is about the smiles we see every time someone walks through the door."

Many of the individual-size cakes begin as full sheet cakes. Then they are brushed with the appropriate natural flavors – a simple syrup, cognac or rum. Aivazian tastes the pastries daily to ensure consistency.

Aivazian recommends two pastries named after the bakery – one a chocolate cake with custard and fresh cream, topped with ganache; the other a vanilla sponge cake with fresh cream and custard, topped with fruit.

I especially enjoyed the hazelnut cake and the lemon tart, which was brimming with flavor without being super-sweet.

Ettore's European Bakery & Restaurant

2376 Fair Oaks Blvd.,

Sacramento; (916) 482-0708, www.ettores.com

Ettore's celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. If you want to understand its longevity, take a look at the dark chocolate richness of the Kahlua cake or the glistening fruit tarts.

The variety of chocolate truffles is quite good, as is the tiramisu. But one of my favorites is something that came on the scene only recently: the chocolate chip cookie. For years, Ettore's positioned itself as a European bakery that wasn't offering what everyone else did. That meant no apple pie, and no aforementioned all-American cookie.

But customer demand won out. Now Ettore's tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookie is made with European dark chocolate and white chocolate chunks. There's tough competition out there, but I have yet to taste a better one.

New Roma Bakery

1800 E St., Sacramento;

(916) 443-2346

Don't be fooled by the lack of glitz and glamour. Sure, nothing has changed at this midtown institution in probably 50 years – and that's a good thing.

Longtime customers swear the éclairs are the best in town. The little tube-shaped cannoli are very good, and the variety of cakes is impressive (sold as whole cakes, rarely by the slice). Shop manager Monnie Sarron says a particular favorite is the fruit basket cake: four layers of cake with fresh strawberries in season, pineapple, bananas and custard topped with whipped cream.

I'm a fan of the variety of danishes, especially the cream cheese one. They're all made fresh daily – prepared the night before and baked while you're still snoozing.

"If you come in when we open at 6 a.m., the danishes will still be warm," said Sarron. I often stop in for muffins, which are always tender and flavorful.

One fun thing about New Roma is the half-off sales. On Sundays at 1 p.m., everything is marked down 50 percent, prompting some folks to wait in chairs until the clock strikes. It's a fantastic deal for baked goods that are still very fresh. New Roma is closed Monday; that's why everything has to go Sunday.

On weekday afternoons, all doughnuts, danishes and unbagged bread is half off. And though this is a story about desserts, you'll want to grab a loaf or two of excellent bread, all of which is baked in a brick oven that will never go out of style.

To see more luscious images from Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates and Freeport Bakery, go to http://videos.sacbee.com

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Call The Bee's Blair Anthony Robertson, (916) 321-1099.

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