diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/exporters/exporter.py b/IPython/nbconvert/exporters/exporter.py
index 7e25156..5ae6296 100755
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/exporters/exporter.py
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/exporters/exporter.py
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ from copy import deepcopy
 
 # other libs/dependencies
 from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
-from markdown import markdown
 
 # IPython imports
 from IPython.config.configurable import Configurable
@@ -45,7 +44,7 @@ JINJA_EXTENSIONS = ['jinja2.ext.loopcontrols']
 
 default_filters = {
         'indent': indent,
-        'markdown': markdown,
+        'markdown': filters.markdown2html,
         'ansi2html': filters.ansi2html,
         'filter_data_type': filters.DataTypeFilter,
         'get_lines': filters.get_lines,
diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/filters/markdown.py b/IPython/nbconvert/filters/markdown.py
index 85669b0..eb842bd 100755
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/filters/markdown.py
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/filters/markdown.py
@@ -19,16 +19,18 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import sys
 import subprocess
 
+from IPython.nbconvert.utils.pandoc import pandoc
+
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Functions
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 __all__ = [
+    'markdown2html',
     'markdown2latex',
     'markdown2rst'
 ]
 
-
 def markdown2latex(source):
     """Convert a markdown string to LaTeX via pandoc.
 
@@ -45,18 +47,13 @@ def markdown2latex(source):
     out : string
       Output as returned by pandoc.
     """
-    p = subprocess.Popen('pandoc -f markdown -t latex'.split(),
-                         stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-    
-    out, err = p.communicate(source.encode('utf-8'))
-    
-    if err:
-        print(err, file=sys.stderr)
-    #print('*'*20+'\n', out, '\n'+'*'*20)  # dbg
-    
-    return unicode(out, 'utf-8')[:-1]
+    return pandoc(source, 'markdown', 'latex')
 
 
+def markdown2html(source):
+    """Convert a markdown string to HTML via pandoc"""
+    return pandoc(source, 'markdown', 'html')
+
 def markdown2rst(source):
     """Convert a markdown string to LaTeX via pandoc.
 
@@ -73,13 +70,5 @@ def markdown2rst(source):
     out : string
       Output as returned by pandoc.
     """
-    p = subprocess.Popen('pandoc -f markdown -t rst'.split(),
-                         stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-    
-    out, err = p.communicate(source.encode('utf-8'))
-    
-    if err:
-        print(err, file=sys.stderr)
-    #print('*'*20+'\n', out, '\n'+'*'*20)  # dbg
-    
-    return unicode(out, 'utf-8')
+    return pandoc(source, 'markdown', 'rst')
+
diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py b/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c914cee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+"""Utility for calling pandoc"""
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Copyright (c) 2013 the IPython Development Team.
+#
+# Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
+#
+# The full license is in the file COPYING.txt, distributed with this software.
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Imports
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+# Stdlib imports
+import sys
+import subprocess
+
+# IPython imports
+from IPython.utils.py3compat import cast_bytes
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Classes and functions
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def pandoc(source, fmt, to, encoding='utf-8'):
+    """Convert an input string in format `from` to format `to` via pandoc.
+
+    This function will raise an error if pandoc is not installed.
+    Any error messages generated by pandoc are printed to stderr.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    source : string
+      Input string, assumed to be valid format `from`.
+    fmt : string
+      The name of the input format (markdown, etc.)
+    to : string
+      The name of the output format (html, etc.)
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    out : unicode
+      Output as returned by pandoc.
+    """
+    p = subprocess.Popen(['pandoc', '-f', fmt, '-t', to],
+                         stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE
+    )
+    out, _ = p.communicate(cast_bytes(source, encoding))
+    out = out.decode(encoding, 'replace')
+    return out[:-1]
+