In a medium-size bowl, add in ¼ Cup of Lukewarm mill. The milk should be lukewarm, just enough warm that you can easily dip your finger in it.

Add yeast and sugar in the water and give it a mix.

Cover and let it sit for 10 minutes. If your kitchen is cold, cover a wide bowl on top of it or let it sit in microwave or oven (basically in a closed location – do not switch on microwave or oven)

If your yeast mixture has not bloomed properly the yeast is dead and you would need to work with new yeast. At times even before the expiry date it is dead. So always bloom the yeast and check before adding in the dough.

In a wide bowl or your stand mixer sift the flour and add the salt and give everything a quick mix.

Add in the bloomed yeast mixture and give everything a mix.

Mix in the remaining Lukewarm milk + water in a bowl.

Now, slowly add the water milk mixture.

Keep on adding the liquid ¼ cup at a time until you get a sticky dough. One should be able to add around 1 ½– 1 ½ cups of liquid in total.

If you are kneading it with your hand, take the dough mix on a clean kitchen working area.

Knead this for a good 5-10 minutes until the dough comes in together.

If using a stand mixer just knead the dough using the kneading hook slowly incorporating liquid.

First on slow speed until the dough is well incorporated and then on high speed for around 5 minutes.

Once the dough comes together, add in the oil again ½ tablespoon at a time and knead it with your hand until you form an elastic dough. If you form a dent the dough should spring back in a few seconds.

For the stand mixer follow the same, by slowly adding the oil and kneading on medium speed until the dough is elastic.

Now form a rough ball from the dough.

Grease the bowl of a stand mixer or a wide bowl.

Keep the bowl covered in a warm kitchen location. One can even keep the bowl in the oven/microwave with oven/microwave switched off and oven door closed. Do not turn the oven/microwave.

Let the dough rest for 75-90 minutes until doubled.

Once the dough has doubled in size, pinch the dough. Give it a rough knead for a minute and divide it into equal size balls/buns. One can measure and divide too, I eyeball it. If measuring one bun size is around 80 grams.

Shape the ears and put it on top of the circle.

If required, you can even shape the mouth using a small dough.

Arrange the buns in a baking tray lined with parchment paper or greased lightly with oil.

Space out the buns leaving a gap in between for the buns to rise.

Cover it with a clean muslin cloth and let it rest for 30-40 minutes.

Again, one can keep it on the kitchen counter or the tray in the oven/microwave with oven/microwave switched off and oven door closed.

Once the pav buns have risen, i.e. after 30-40 minutes preheat the oven to 200 Deg C / 392 Deg F. (Remember if you have kept the oven tray in the oven, remove the tray from the oven before starting to preheat)

You can brush the buns with milk. This will however darken the colour of the buns. (So, I brushed it at the end of 5 mins of baking time., you can skip it completely.)

Bake this in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.

If the oven is hot from one side or has uneven heating, around 10 minutes just rotate the tray. Be a bit quick so as not to escape the heat.

Do not exceed the baking time of 20 minutes or your buns will go hard.

After 20 minutes remove from the oven.

You can apply butter or oil as required. (Just lightly, do not overdo it)

After 5-10 minutes gently lift the parchment paper and let this cool on a wire rack.

If you have not used parchment paper, just let the whole tray sit on a wire rack.

Once cooled keep the buns covered with a muslin cloth. This helps them not to get dry and retain moisture.