I've usually made garlic bread by pouring over the bread with special garlic bread powder over spread butter. This works, but is there any way to make the garlic sauce/powder on your own? 
This is probably relatively unconventional and a completely different technique than you described altogether, but it answers the question in the title :)  When I'm making a stovetop dinner and don't feel like heating the oven/toaster oven/grill/broiler, I'll often melt some butter into a pan, throw some (fresh) garlic and spices in, give it a minute, throw the bread in, and crisp the bread up right in the pan in the butter.  Quick and easy! 