This.

Homemade during normal hours and sobriety, no contest

Getting home pissed at 3am? a frozen garlic baguette from Tesco is possibly the ultimate food

The best flavors come from people who don't care about your long term health.

You might want to check the label!

If it's 100% butter and it's not like 8 bucks a loaf, I'll eat my digital hat.

I do agree there's no way I'd add enough butter to emulate the store bought stuff.

I may have been exaggerating just a bit!

But how are you heating up that store bought bread?? Or do you have pre cooked garlic bread where you are??? (Serious question)

I usually see parsley used for the green flecks in it. Doesn't really affect the flavor; it's there purely for the aesthetic. Oregano might taste pretty good tho. Imma have to try that.

One thing that definitely elevates a garlic butter, though, is roasting the garlic first. You can even just use the garlic as butter after that, since it will release the oils and becomes spreadable all by itself.

I don't personally consider food preparation to be a time expense in my life, but absolutely if time is that tight for whatever reason, fill your boots.

You are on a cooking discussion group though, and presumably if you don't have time for a few minutes of work (see: my shortcut comment above), you don't have time for any cooking whatsoever??

That is a matter of opinion. A bread machine that you can figure out how to program correctly means you dump some stuff in before going to bed and have fresh bread in the morning. Some people love this.

Personally I say no. I prefer to mix my sour dough by hand and bake it in a dutch oven with charcoal.. Once in a while I cheat I put it in the electric oven which is easier. This is not hard, but I need to be at home for a full day since it needs to be kneaded, punched down, then get up early to bake it before my shower. You should not be surprised that I sometimes skip the gram measurements of a scale and just dump things into the bowl until it "feels right". (but I fully endorse the implication of the other comment that you should throw away your measuring cups/spoons - either go by weight or by feel: bulk measures are worthless).

100% yes and I'll tell you why (edit: 100% yes worth it)

I had the same frustrations years ago when I first tried them. This is how you do it:

1. Buy a nice digital kitchen scale. Forget your cups and tablespoons. You're working with grams now. Dabble with recipes that appeal to you. Trial and error. Once you nail it, that's your recipe from now on. The scale keeps it consistent every time. Game changer.

2. Buy a good bread knife. And resist the temptation to slice until it's cooled. You'll get better and better and suddenly you're making beautiful sandwiches with your clean slices.

Those two things will eliminate what I think the main frustrations are with bread machines: inconsistency and cutting issues.

Edit 2: WHEAT GLUTEN!! If your loaves are not chewy enough and just kind of mush, add straight wheat gluten. I have 15g in my personal recipe due to using half white all purpose flour.... replaces some of the gluten missing from that.