Embedding Markdown in Jekyll HTML

I'm trying to nest markdown in an HTML file while using Jekyll. Is there a way to achieve something like the following?

# index.html

---
layout: default
---


<p>[Stack Overflow](http://www.stackoverflow.com)</p>

Note: I'm aware that I could do this instead.

# index.html

---
layout: default
---


<p><a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">Stack Overflow</a></p>

If you are using Kramdown, based on their doc you can do this:

<div markdown="1">
   My text with **markdown** syntax
</div>

And this way, the text within the div is rendered as markdown.

Make sure to use the .md or .markdown extension for the file, as .html files aren't sent to Kramdown for processing!

Here's how you can define a markdown block with a Jekyll plugin:

module Jekyll
  class MarkdownBlock < Liquid::Block
    def initialize(tag_name, text, tokens)
      super
    end
    require "kramdown"
    def render(context)
      content = super
      "#{Kramdown::Document.new(content).to_html}"
    end
  end
end
Liquid::Template.register_tag('markdown', Jekyll::MarkdownBlock)

(To install this snippet as a plugin, put it in a *.rb file under _plugins directory of your source site root)

Then, use it like this:

{% markdown %}
[Stack Overflow](http://www.stackoverflow.com)
{% endmarkdown %}

EDIT: See @Cristian's answer for a better solution! If you're using Kramdown (which is likely the case since you are using Jekyll), you can use it's feature to render markdown inside div's with a markdown="1" attribute.

As of current Jekyll 3.6.2 life can be a lot simpler with the following two options:

<div>
{{ "## Yes, this renders as markdown" | markdownify }}
</div>

note the markdown-attribute:

<div markdown="1">
## some markdown
inside some html. `snippet` _italic_ **bold**
</div>