Hi Lee, I also tend to get too dark a bottom when I preheat my cast iron Dutch oven at 500F with this recipe. Adding diastatic malt powder also tends to intensify crust color, so this may be contributing to your burned bottom crust as well. For my oven I find it works best to preheat at 450F and to reduce the diastatic malt powder to 1 teaspoon rather than 2. If you're preheating your pot, I would also recommend removing the lid after 20 minutes of baking. These adjustments should still produce a beautiful and delicious loaf, minus the burned bottom. 

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