Hi, Dennis! Sticky dough can definitely be challenging to handle. Instead of water, you may find it helpful to cover your hands with a bit of oil (any type you would normally cook with would be fine) or a very fine coating of flour. While it's about shaping a round loaf rather than a square one, you may find that our blog post Shaping a boule has some hints that will be helpful for you as you practice shaping your bread machine loaf by hand. The section on general shaping principles as well as the envelope fold may be useful to you in getting that smooth, evenly-shaped loaf you're looking for. Happy baking!

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