Oh my gosh baking in a Dutch oven is HARD! It's HOT!

It is hot, that's true. But I don't find it difficult. I put baking parchment (reusable) on top of the banneton and invert onto a board. Then I score. Then I lower the parchment into the hot Dutch oven. I don't mind that the parchment sometimes crinkles up a bit.

This is one reason several of us opt for the combo pan and put the bread on the shallow part, then cover with the deeper one. I know dmsnyder has experimented with the notion of preheating the pans. He has had success without preheating, but to me his best strategy was to preheat only the deeper pan, so that you don't have to worry about burning yourself on the shallow one. Eventually you learn to work with the hot pan, but in the mean time you might try that.

ETA: I forgot to mention that his original experiment was with a dutch oven, not a combo. There was very little difference with the preheated dutch oven.

I use my cast iron Dutch oven to bake my breads.  The dough is scored before lowering the dough into the Dutch oven on parchment.  I then use a wooden spoon to press the parchment paper against the sides of the Dutch oven to prevent the crinkled excess paper from altering the shape of my loaf.

Practice makes perfect, LOL

It took me a while to get use to the screaming hot Dutch Oven but I realized that I just needed to take a breath, take my time, be focuses and careful and all my loaves were transformed overnight.

I use two use parchment paper but it simply added another step to worry about and like anything else, the simpler the process the better is is so I got rid of the parchment paper. If the Dutch Oven is at a high enough temperature then the loaf will release all by itself when it it ready.

I do use a combo Dutch Oven and can use them upside down but I went back to right side up because my loaves were coming out just fine either way.

I did try practicing scoring and it is fun but I now don't score at all, I don't use parchment paper at all (for a while I used corn meal on the bottom of the Dutch Oven which does work but I don't need or use that any more as well). I simply preheat the top and bottom of the Dutch Oven to 500º F for at least 30 minutes, then I set the high hydration dough (I experimented with hydration until I found what worked for me, I never go below 60% hydration and I sometime go as high as 85% hydration if I am in the mood). I focused on practicing on transferring the dough to the hot Dutch Oven because that doe stake skill) and then I quickly put the hot lid on it and close the oven quickly.

Now as soon as the door is closed I drop the temperature down to 450º F and start the timer. I pull the lid off (at different times depending on the recipe) and let it finish. I then pull it out of the oven and tip the Dutch Oven, the bread just rolls out by itself onto the cooling rack.

At this pint the loaf has natural cracking on it, which looks artisanal and eliminates the need for scoring and everyone loves my parchment-free, scoreless loaves. :)

You might want to take a look at this TFL post of mine Baking Bread in Cast Iron - No Preheat Method - Photos!

The cast iron dutch oven and lid are not preheated though the oven is preheated. Basically, the dough has the final proof in the room temperature dutch oven which is then loaded into a preheated oven when ready to bake. Avoids the risk of burning yourself. I used a 2-quart capacity dutch oven so if you're using a 5 quart capacity dutch oven (which is a more common size) I don't know if it would work. However, the post got many replies so you may find some useful tips from other TFL members who used this approach.