Warm milk slightly higher than room temperature. Add sugar and yeast. Mix lightly, cover the pot and keep aside for 10 minutes. The yeast will rise and the mixture will look frothy. If this doesn't happen, probably the yeast has expired or the milk is too hot/cold. Do not use such mixture.
Mix with a whisk maida, salt and milk powder in a bowl. Add the frothy yeast mixture.
Start combining everything with your hands. The mixure is absolutely perfect if it feels sticky/slimy/messy. If it is dry, make it slimy by adding more milk(at room temperature). Transfer the dough on a clean flat surface and add butter.
Start kneading by rubbing it against a flat surface (as if you are making fafda). Scrape with a spatula to mix it back and knead as it's very sticky. DO NOT use any flour or oil to make it less sticky. Buns will not be soft if you add anything while kneading. Continue to knead for about 15 mins or until the dough feels smooth, shiny and airy. Transfer it on the bowl again. Kneading will activate the glutton and make the buns soft.
Apply little butter on the dough, cover the bowl and put it in a warm place to arise. After 45 min to 1 hour, the dough will rise more than double in size. Sprinkle a little maida on your feast and punch in the middle of the dough to break the air bubbles.
Knead the dough for one minute. If it sticks too much, sprinkle very little maida. (Not too much otherwise the pav would not be that soft). Divide this dough into 16 equal size portions, about 30-31 grams each (I needed bigger buns, so I divided into 8 big portions).
Take a 8" square cake tin (I do not have a square and I am fine with a love too)and grease with oil.
Flatten a portion of dough on a greasy surface and collect all the sides in the middle. Gently place in your palm and roll a bit to make it smooth.
Place the ball in the tin. Do the same with all the portions and place them in the tin. Keep them very close touching each other. Otherwise they wont rise up, but rise sideways and become flat. Brush/tap them with milk and keep aside uncovered for another 40-45 mins. They will rise above the tin.
Preheat your oven to 200C for 10 minutes. Sprinkle some milk over the buns, without making any holes in them or else all the air will escape. Very Gently place the cake tin in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 200 C. or until the surface of the buns is moderately brown. The surface will feel dry and hard, but do not panic. Immediately apply butter on the surface and keep aside to cool down. The surface will get soft as they cool.
Gently remove the buns from the pan when they are slightly cold and have released the pan. Put them on a rack until they cool down completely. Do not use the buns for at least 5-6 hours after they are cooked. I always bake them in the afternoon to use them on the next day.
