On a multi engined aircraft, then there shouldn't be any need to turn back.
With a light twin e.g. Seneca, which can have poor SE capability - I remember a figure of 15nm to get to 1000AAL at max wt - you would either climb to altitude and return in the circuit or land ahead.
The big difficulty with turning back in a single or light twin is you are turning a lot more than 180 degrees as you have to get lined up with the runway.
To do this quickly - in a single you are time limited - you need a very high bank angle. This will put your stall speed up quite a lot with the increased load factor, so you have to really drop the nose of the aircraft to do it.
This is not for the faint hearted!
Try it on a flight sim on a PC and you will see it is difficult - I wouldn't do it