Maida also know as refined flour in english is softer general purpose flour (also called 'all-purpose flour') that is a highly refined and can be used to make roti, parathas, bread etc. Roti made from maida is much softer than the traditional atta flour. It is a must for making naan and samosas.
In India, maida is used to make cakes, pastries and sweeter bread such as sheermal, a sweet milk bread, or baqerkhani, layered bread-like rough puff pastry - both from Kashmir.
Malpua is a popular sweet dish of Bihar, prepared by a mixture of maida, milk, bananas, almonds (badam) or cashew (kaju) nuts and peanuts (moong fali). Another notable sweet dish of Bihar is balushahi, prepared by specially treated combination of maida and sugar along with ghee. Other famous sweet is khaja and thekua, made from flour, vegetable fat, and sugar, mainly, served in weddings or other occasions.