Proofing Box for rising bread dough

All bread recipes usually call for one or two risings.  The first rise is after all the ingredients are added to the dough.  Typically, you want the dough to double in size, roughly 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  The second rising is when you mold the dough into the final shape for baking - either freeform or in a bread pan of some sort.  Again, the goal is for the dough to double in size.  To get the dough to rise, you must put it in a warm spot.  Normally, I will put it in my cold oven with the light on.  Sometimes that is not an option particularly if you have recently done some baking - the oven would be way too hot! 

My husband built this  "proofing box" for me.  It works wonderfully!  He used a plain old styrofoam box he got from work (I've seen these all over the place, so it shouldn't be too hard to find).  He bought the electrical supplies from Walmart.

The most labor he did was drilling a hole in the lid and assembling the light bulb fixture with the electric wire and plug.  It uses a 15 watt bulb.  You won't think this small bulb would put out any heat, but it does.  It almost gets too hot, so I have to prop one side of the box open to keep it cool.

I've also used this in my cheesemaking (I own a small dairy goat farm).  This is a very versatile little box!