Clouds of apple scent drift across the concrete plaza, drawing young and old alike to the tiny white cottage recently sprung up in front of the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Scrunching noses to the windowpane, they peer past the gingham curtains, as if looking back in time, to see a woman in a dotted red dress and an apron leaning over a counter and rolling out a crust.

Behind the woman, a full-size apple pie bakes in a little oven. When the pie is done, the woman opens a side window and sets it on the sill to cool.

The tableau may be an art piece. But the pie is real, and it's yours for the taking, if you dare.

Four days a week, the woman, an artist named Anissa Mack, stands in her one-room children's playhouse and bakes pies for the world.

Her installation is called ''Pies for a Passerby.'' The idea is to see what happens when a classic image of small-town America -- the swiping of a fresh pie off a windowsill, depicted everywhere from ''The Little Rascals'' to ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' to ''The Simpsons'' -- comes to life and touches down in the big city.