In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and warm milk. Add yeast and let stand for few minutes until its frothy.
In a large bowl, sieve flour and salt. Add in the yeast mixture; stir until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead with your hands till you get a smooth non sticky dough. Do not add extra flour or liquid. Knead well for about 5 to 8 minutes. Let the dough rest covered for 10 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle. Gently spread butter over 2/3rd surface of the dough. Keeping the plain surface towards your left,fold the plain surface over the buttered surface and the right surface over the first fold to form a 12 x 3-inch rectangle(refer the figure below). Cover with a plastic wrap and place in freezer for 10 minutes.
Remove dough from freezer. Remove plastic wrap. Roll the dough again (sprinkle on a little more flour, if needed), into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle. Working with a long side, fold up bottom third of dough. Fold top third of dough over the first fold to form a 12 x 3-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap; place in freezer for 10 minutes.
Remove dough from freezer, Remove plastic wrap. Roll the dough into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle. Beginning with a long side, roll up dough jelly-roll fashion(do not seal ends of roll). Cut roll into 12 equal slices.
Place slices, cut sides up, in muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Lightly coat tops of dough slices with cooking spray.
Cover and let rise in a warm place 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
If the weather is cold and you're in search of a warm place in your kitchen. I've an idea.
Use the oven, place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven. Turn the oven on to its highest setting for 2 minutes. Turn oven off. Cover the muffin tray with a towel or a plastic wrap and place in the oven above the pan of steaming water. This method helps a lot during winter.
I followed this method for my dinner rolls and as you can see,the rolls raised beautifully.
Now preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C)
Bake dough at 375°F (190°C) for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Change the psotions of the muffin trays after 10 or 15 minutes by checking which side of your rolls have started turning brown.
Remove from pan, and cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.